Defense health care: DOD needs to fully assess its nonclinical suicide prevention efforts and address any impediments to effectiveness : report to Congressional committees
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Contributor(s):
- United States. Government Accountability Office. issuing body. United States. Congress. issuing body.
- Publication:
- Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, April 2021
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Government Regulation Suicide -- legislation & jurisprudence Veterans Health Services -- legislation & jurisprudence United States United States. Department of Defense
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Why GAO did this study. Suicide is a public health problem facing all populations, including the military. From 2014 to 2019, the rate of suicide increased from 20.4 to 25.9 per 100,000 active component servicemembers. Over the past decade, DOD has taken steps to address the growing rate of suicide in the military through efforts aimed at prevention. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 included a provision for GAO to review DOD’s suicide prevention programs. This report examines DOD’s suicide prevention efforts, including, among other objectives, (1) the extent to which non-clinical efforts are assessed for being evidence based and effective and (2) any impediments that hamper the effectiveness of these efforts. GAO examined suicide prevention policies, reports, and assessments and interviewed officials from DOD, the military services, and the Reserve components. GAO also interviewed officials at four installations and a National Guard site selected for variety in military service, location, and size. What GAO recommends. GAO recommends that (1) DSPO and the military services develop a process to ensure that individual non-clinical suicide prevention efforts are assessed for effectiveness, (2) DSPO and the military services work together to develop and use consistent suicide-related definitions, and (3) DOD improve collaboration on its annual suicide reports to reduce duplication of effort. DOD concurred with all of GAO’s recommendations and identified actions it will take to implement them.
- Copyright:
- The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (ii, 31 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918317786506676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918317786506676