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Air Force Suicide Case Study

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1. In the United States (U.S.), approximately 42,773 Americans die by suicide each year.1 This has become a huge problem not only in the U.S. but also in the military, specifically the Air Force (AF). Suicides are a huge problem in the AF and this issue needs to be address. Some possible solutions are administering mental health screenings yearly and making it mandatory for supervisors to randomly give their subordinates monthly mental screenings. The best solution for this issue would be developing a more extensive background check to aid in figuring out a recruit’s mental status before they enter the military.

2. The current AF prevention tactics are not enough to combat the current rise of suicides. Suicides have become an epidemic for the AF. In 2014, the AF accounted for 59 suicides, which was the most since the early 2000s when the organization first began tracking these incidents.2 There are many reasons …show more content…

It is clear that the AF needs to do more to decrease the suicide rate. Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force James Cody has previously stated that the AF is not doing enough to bring down the suicide rate.2 A prominent solution would be to produce a more extensive background check to combat the rising suicide rates in the AF. A House bill, sponsored by Representative Glenn Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican. proposed that the National Institutes of Health would create a universal mental health evaluation that would thoroughly inspect recruits’ past for mental disorders and mental health issues.5 The new mental health evaluation would be a lot more invasive, and would dig further into a new recruit’s past in efforts to weed out any potential recruits who have attempted suicide. It would also explore if the member has had any mental disorders before they have the chance to be accepted into the AF. With an increase in testing for current Airman, and a more thorough mental health screening for recruits, the suicide rates among Airman would

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