By the Numbers: 14 December 2020
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Years ago, when I was on active duty, I was called to serve as the psychologist on a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) in the case of a recent suicide of a Service member at the installation. While every suicide is a unique loss, this loss crosses my mind frequently. The husband and his wife, returned home very late one night from a date night and began to argue. As the argument escalated, he fatally shot himself. Although there were many precipitating factors, I have often wondered – would it be different if this had happened during the day? Did he feel it was so late he had no one to call and nowhere to go? Was he tired and exhausted?”
September is National Suicide Prevention Month and one goal is to help provide information on suicide prevention programs and resources. Although it is important to focus on suicide prevention every day of every year, given the challenges of 2020, this year it may be even more important.
It has been a tough year for many people around the world as we struggle to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Within the United States, we have not only surpassed the 6 million mark of people infected with the virus, but our deaths from the virus are nearing 200,000. We are more than six months into a period of extended social distancing and quarantine, and most of us are feeling depleted. To add to this stress, we also have a second pandemic we are battling, the racism pandemic.