Annual Suicide Report

Abstract: The Department of Defense (DoD) is committed to preventing suicide within the military. Over the past decade, the Department has made strides in establishing an infrastructure for preventing military suicide by aligning our strategy with the public health approach; establishing policy guidance and an enterprise-wide suicide prevention governance body; standardizing and advancing data surveillance, research, clinical interventions, and program evaluation; and partnering and engaging with other federal, non-profit, and private organizations. There is still much more work to be done. In October 2018, the Department established a requirement for a DoD Annual Suicide Report (ASR) to serve as the official source of annual suicide counts and unadjusted rates for the DoD and a means by which to increase transparency and accountability for DoD efforts towards the prevention of suicide. This requirement also mandates the reporting of data on suicide deaths among military family members. This firstever ASR presents recent suicide data on Service members and their families, provides an overview of the Department’s suicide prevention strategy and governance, and describes current and future initiatives underway to combat suicide in the DoD.