Title: Putting Suicide Policy through the Wringer: Perspectives of Military Members Who Attempted to Kill Themselves

Biography:

I enlisted for eight years in the Air Force and deployed to Iraq where I was a witness to and participant of the effects of war. Through my military experiences, I grew interested in helping service members, which led me to my training at Our Lady of the Lake University to become a counseling psychologist. I have worked with the military mental health policy and research branch the past few years, which this research came from, and recently transitioned to the Veteran Affairs Healthcare System. The act of suicide has touched me personally and I continue to learn from the stories people share who have considered suicide as an option.

Abstract

In response to the Air Force Surgeon General, Lieutenant General Mark Ediger’s call for medical services to be guided by service members’ values, preferences, and experiences within the medical system, we conducted an interpretive phenomenological analysis of transcripts in which service members shared their experiences of military mental health policy and practices after being identified as suicidal.