BOISE, Idaho — A group in Idaho is working to prevent suicide among service members by partaking in a nationwide initiative that addresses the challenges military members face and how to reduce the suicide rate.
For the past 15 months, individuals from local veteran-focused organizations have been analyzing various methods and developing a strategy to effectively participate in the National Governor's Challenge to Prevent Suicide Among Service Members, Veterans, and their Families (SMVF), which aims to help service members and their families struggling with mental health.
In collaboration with the Veterans Administration (VA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the program was successfully established in the state of Idaho, where the challenge will enter the next phase of implementation, according to the Idaho Division of Veterans Services.
"We are well into our second year. The first year we did a 'flaw' analysis: what's going right, what's going wrong, what can we do better? The second year they [SMVF organization] took us to D.C., and we went to a strategy academy basically to articulate exactly what we wanted to do," said Marisa McCarter, community resource assistant for the Idaho Division of Veteran Services.
On Friday, leaders and community partners from around the state gathered in Boise to celebrate the milestone. McCarter said the implementation of the challenge will focus on three "priority groups" to determine what success looks like for Idahoans.
"We broke that into three teams, because let's face it, suicide prevention is a very large topic. So, we have screening, which is identifying the veteran. We have connectivenes, which is connecting them to valuable and important resources," McCarter said. "And we also have what we call lethal means safety, or what we do in a crisis situation to make that safe for the veteran."
The end goal of the SMVF challenge is to improve mental wellbeing and prevent suicide among all service members and their loved ones. Find more information on Idaho's military and veteran services here.
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