Suicide Awareness and Prevention

Heads up: This topic can be hard to talk about. Some readers may have personal experience with suicide, and if anything in this section is difficult, take a moment, reach out for help, or skip ahead. Open dialogue and respect for others both matter here.

If you are in crisis right now, call or text 988 (Veterans Crisis Line: press 1) or, on base, contact your chaplain or the 24/7 SARC hotline at 210-808-7272 (BMT-specific). For immediate medical emergency, call 911.

Every member of the Air Force is invaluable to the team. The bond you build with your fellow Airmen can last a lifetime — and serving in a high operations tempo, often away from family, can be hard. Suicide is a real issue. There may be a time when someone around you can't exercise the self-control they need to get through a hard moment. Doing your part means learning the warning signs, checking in on your wingman, and not being afraid to speak up when something isn't right. You may be the only person in a position to make the difference.

Overview

Objective: Identify basic facts about Airmanship fundamentals in the Air Force.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the importance of connectedness in suicide prevention.
• Recognize risk factors and warning signs in someone in distress.
• Recognize behaviors and actions that support culture change — normalizing help-seeking and checking in.
• Know how to take clear, quick action to intervene effectively using the ACE model (Ask-Care-Escort).
• Identify strategies for increasing connectedness and coping.

Foundational Competencies

• Resilience — Negotiating, managing, and adapting to significant sources of stress or trauma.
• Self-Control — Keeping emotions under control and restraining negative actions when under stress.

Summary

• Connectedness
• Risk Factors and Warning Signs
• Culture Change
• ACE — Ask, Care, Escort
• Protective Factors

Connectedness

Connectedness means people feel a sense of belonging. They feel seen and heard, and they know that others care and will be there for them.

Listening and staying connected lets us:

• Learn more about each other
• Recognize changes in behavior that signal someone is stressed or in distress
• Work as a team to build up and support each other

When you feel connected, you have people you can reach out to — in a moment of need, or just on a hard day. The same is true the other way: a wingman who feels connected to you is more likely to speak up before things get worse.

Reflect on what connectedness means to you. Where in your current life do you feel most connected to others? Who in your flight, family, or wingmen group is going to know if something changes for you?

Risk Factors and Warning Signs

Stress vs. distress

Stress is a normal part of life. It can be managed through healthy and positive stress relief.

Distress is what happens when stressors overwhelm the ability to cope. Distress is a state of extreme anxiety, sadness, anguish, worry, sorrow, or emotional pain — to the point that the person can no longer adapt to stressors or cope with their environment.

The line between the two isn't always sharp, which is why noticing the early signals matters.

Reflect on healthy ways you cope with stress — exercise, sleep, talking to a friend, music, journaling, reaching out to a chaplain. Build the toolkit before you need it.

Risk factors

Risk factors increase the chance that a person may consider, attempt, or die by suicide. Common ones:

• Marital or relationship problems
• Workplace issues or legal problems (LOR, Article 15, DUI charge, etc.)
• Money / financial problems
• Loss of a loved one or pet, or being close to someone who has died by suicide
• Alcohol / drug use
• Significant life-altering events (moving, demotion, job loss)
• Isolation

Warning signs

Warning signs are usually visible behaviors that suggest someone is in distress and needs someone to check in. Friends, family, and coworkers play a key role — they're often the first to notice.

Sometimes the warning signs are acute and require immediate escalation to a higher level of care (covered in the ACE section below).

Common warning signs:

• Misuse or abuse of alcohol / drugs — overuse at one time and / or repeated use over time
• Extreme mood swings (e.g., extremely sad to suddenly calm or happy)
• Any extreme behavior outside the person's normal demeanor
• Withdrawal from family, friends, and the activities they normally enjoy
• Concerning or troubling messages on social media
• Talking about being hopeless or being a burden to others
• Talking about wanting to die or suicide
• Looking for a way to kill oneself

Help-seeking is not a sign of weakness. It takes strength and courage to act on self-improvement. You don't need to have experienced a traumatic event to seek support — it's OK to seek help just to get through everyday challenges. Proactively reach out to others, and be a source of help if you sense someone might need it.

Culture Change

Reflect on this scenario: Imagine an environment where checking in with others and seeking help when you need it is as common as asking for help when your car breaks down. What role can you play in creating that?

Culture change comes through normalizing help-seeking and openly talking about mental and behavioral health. Wingman intervention skills — especially the 3 Ds — are important for early intervention, when someone may be showing signs of stress before they become overwhelmed or distressed.

The 3 Ds

• Direct. Acknowledge what you've noticed. Directly tell the person you've seen the change in behavior or mood — or directly acknowledge that you're worried about them harming themselves.
• Distract. In the context of suicide, this means distracting them from an internal experience — feeling isolated, hopeless, or worthless. Don't use distraction if the person is at imminent risk of self-harm. That's an escort situation.
• Delegate. Ask someone else to intervene or to help you. It may be appropriate to walk the person to a mental health provider, supervisor, or chaplain.

Barriers

Barriers are conditions that make it hard to address concerning behaviors even when you know someone needs help. They show up both in the 3 Ds and at every step of ACE. Working through them starts with becoming aware of them so you can be there for others when they need you most.

ACE — Ask, Care, Escort

Reflect on what might stop you from asking someone if they're thinking about suicide. What would help you push through that hesitation?

Knowing the steps doesn't make the conversation easy. Even with a clear model, the moment is rarely clear-cut. ACE should flow like a conversation — not a checklist you read off.

A — Ask

• Research has conclusively shown that asking about thoughts of self-harm or suicide will not "plant" the idea or make the person suicidal. It's a debunked myth.
• Be direct. Ask if they are thinking about dying by suicide. Examples:
  • "Are you having thoughts about suicide?"
  • "Are you thinking about killing yourself?"
• Avoid judgmental language.
• Show authentic concern, in your own words.

C — Care

Care is showing empathy and being able to understand another person's emotions and feelings.

What care looks like in practice:

• Calmly express genuine concern.
• Listen carefully — to learn what the person is thinking and feeling.
• Don't try to "fix it" or solve all their problems.
• Active listening is critical: eye contact, verbal acknowledgment, non-judgmental, paraphrasing, validating feelings.
• Avoid blaming or minimizing language like "You're overreacting," "It's really not a big deal," or "You should count your blessings."
• Ask about and show concern for physical safety.
• Ask whether the person has tools they could use for self-harm (weapons, OTC and prescription medications, sharp objects, rope, etc.).
• Remember "Go SLO": use Safes, Locks, or store lethal means Outside of the home.
• Ask if you or someone they know can help secure or remove any tools that could be used for self-harm.

It also helps to know your own personal barriers to showing care so you can identify ways to work through them.

E — Escort

If the person needs help beyond what you can provide on the spot, escort them to the next level of direct care:

• Mental health / DPH (Department of Psychological Health)
• Hospital emergency room
• Chaplain Corps personnel
• Calling 911

If appropriate, try to separate the person from tools of self-harm — but not at the risk of your own safety.

After the escort

• Follow up with the person to see how they're doing, but have realistic expectations. You can't solve all of their problems. You can keep showing you care.
• Don't avoid them. Show empathy.
• Reintegration back into the unit after or during treatment / counseling is a critical step for increasing and maintaining connectedness.
• Let the person guide what they want to share or not share — and empower them.

Protective Factors

Connectedness and belonging help foster protective, supportive environments, which increase resilience before, during, and after stressful events. Connectedness also helps us recognize signs of stress and distress earlier — in others and in ourselves.

• Self-awareness is important for seeking help for yourself when you're struggling.
• Use coping strategies that increase personal resilience. You must take care of yourself in order to take care of your team.

There are many different and creative ways to build connectedness and a sense of belonging — find what works for you and the people you serve with.

Summary

Suicide is never the answer. Doing your part by supporting and taking care of your wingmen makes a real difference in mission readiness — and in lives. This section covered warning signs, the ACE model for intervention, and the protective power of connectedness. Serving in this era demands a lot, and it's easy to focus only on yourself. Take the time to get to know your family, friends, coworkers, and wingmen — that's how you'll recognize when something has changed.