Leader Resources

These materials include resources to bring awareness of the lethal means that may be used in a suicide attempt. There are also best practices that highlight prevention, along with easy safety storage tips and lifestyle advice such as increasing time and space between individuals and lethal means.

Use this tool to facilitate the identification, management, resourcing, and readying of Soldiers that may be at-risk for suicide and/or negative behavioral health outcomes. This tool provides orientation to suicide risk factors to empower leader to led engagement at team, squad, and platoon leader level.

• Commanders Risk Reduction Toolkit (Video)

• Commanders Risk Reduction Toolkit (Short Video)

This user-friendly guide is a resource for military Families dealing with stress, difficult situations or emotions. The guide includes tools to help people understand what they are experiencing and how to find help getting through a crisis and addressing concerns.

Safe communication about suicide starts with leaders. Use this guide to talk about suicide and suicide risk safely across your military service, installation, unit, office and community. Download the Implementation Guidance.

Suicide is a serious and complex issue with many contributing factors and no single solution. This guide will help people understand one of the contributing factors to suicide — access to lethal means — and includes information about lethal means safety and strategies to keep service members and their Families safe.

This handbook will help senior commanders implement the Army SPP. The handbook shows how leaders, with support, can synchronize installation efforts to improve readiness and help prevent suicide deaths.

Order print materials for delivery or download digital materials for immediate use. First, you must register for a free account and confirm your organizational affiliation. Follow the “New Users - Click Here to Register” to fill out and submit the form.

The purpose of this handbook is to examine, from a leadership perspective, the fundamental concepts and engagement necessary to develop and execute an effective SPP. Within the suicide prevention framework are tools that assess risk and protective factors. The framework also establishes a unit forum to put the SPP into use.

This guide/toolkit will help Reserve component commanders and other leaders develop a postvention plan after a unit member’s suicide. Postvention refers to response activities that happen immediately after a suicide affects the unit. Postvention has two purposes: to help survivors cope with grief and to prevent more suicides. Postvention is also an opportunity to impart accurate information about suicide, encourage help-seeking behavior and provide messages of resilience, hope and healing. Postvention can help facilitate unit cohesion, maintain mission readiness and restore unit effectiveness after a tragedy. The toolkit also outlines roles and responsibilities.

This toolkit is meant to promote healing among suicide loss survivors and to minimize negative effects of exposure to a suicide, including suicide contagion (“imitation” suicides). Information in this toolkit is drawn from policies, research, survivors’ feedback and subject matter experts’ experience supporting survivors.

This checklist will guide leaders in their response to suicide deaths and attempts. Research suggests a unit leader’s response can play a role in preventing additional deaths by suicide/suicide events or inadvertently contributing to increased deaths by suicide/suicide attempts (suicide contagion). This checklist will also help augment local policies. And it incorporates “lessons learned” from leaders who have experienced suicide in their units. The checklist does not outline every contingency of a suicide or a suicide attempt.

This handbook provides commanders with guidance for leading their units after a suicide. This handbook includes structured activities that promote recovery and healing among those affected by suicide. The activities help reset unit readiness by destigmatizing the tragedy and promote individual and unit recovery.

The three phases of postvention are:

1.  Stabilize: Sets the foundation to promote recovery and minimize the risk of suicide.
2.  Grieve: Moves the focus from the cause of death to the life and service of the deceased and facilitates and supports healthy grieving.
3.  Grow : Helps survivors grow, build and sustain unit cohesion, and instill a culture of help-seeking behavior.

General

• Employee Assistance Program is designed to assist employees, including managers, work through life challenges while they continue to fulfill their work responsibilities.
• Employee Health Services Handbook provides policy guidance to assist agency management and program administrators in developing and implementing comprehensive employee health services programs.
• Federal Employee Health Care Guide offers information about enrollment in health, dental, vision and life insurance, flexible spending accounts and long term care insurance.
• Health Risk Communications provides comprehensive support to help organizations identify, analyze, and plan for risk communication issues during various stages of response to assist with mission success.
• Reports about Behavioral and Social Health in the Military offers trends and outcomes in suicidal behavior, depression, anxiety, substance use, and sexual harassment and assault.

Physical Health

• Active Living gives information about how regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health.
• Men’s Health discusses statistics and healthy versus unhealthy habits for men.
• Women’s Health discusses statistics and healthy versus unhealthy habits for women.

• Army Body Fat Calculator provides a more accurate assessment of body fat.
• Army Body Composition Program ensures that all Soldiers achieve and maintain optimal well-being and performance under all conditions.
• Resilience in Focus series offers tips and practices to become physically resilient, build self-confidence and the ability to lead yourself and others through tough situations in life.

Spiritual Health

• Army Chaplain Corps provides religious support and advises on matters of spirituality and religion to build strong, ready teams to deploy, fight, and win our Nation’s wars.
• Resilience in Focus series offers tips and practices to build spiritual readiness to be able to sustain oneself through all aspects of life, especially during times of stress, hardship or tragedy.

Tobacco Cessation and Substance Misuse

• Tobacco-Free Living and Vaping discusses the harmful effects of tobacco product use on Army readiness include reduced physical performance, delayed healing from injury, and increased likelihood of illness.

• Army Substance Abuse Program provides services that are proactive and responsive to the needs of the Army´s workforce and that emphasize alcohol and other drug misuse deterrence, prevention, education and rehabilitation.
• Tobacco Cessation: Guidance on Establishing Programs Designed to Help Employees Stop Using Tobacco provides policy guidance and program recommendations for workplace tobacco cessation programs
• Tobacco Information and Prevention Source provides a comprehensive array of information and resources, including publications on stopping the use of tobacco.

• Health education and awareness: Providing information, resources and tools to educate individuals about healthy behaviors, lifestyle choices and preventive health practices.
• Health promotion campaigns: Launching targeted campaigns and initiatives to raise awareness about specific health issues, promote healthy behaviors and encourage participation in preventive health activities.
• Health screenings and assessments: Conducting regular health screenings, assessments and evaluations to identify health risks, monitor health status and provide early intervention when necessary.
• Tobacco cessation and substance misuse prevention: Offering support, resources and programs to help individuals quit smoking, vaping or using tobacco products, as well as addressing substance misuse issues through education, prevention and intervention efforts.
• Wellness activities: Offering a variety of wellness programs, activities and events aimed at promoting physical fitness, nutrition, stress management, sleep hygiene and other aspects of well-being.