Developing a Research Strategy for Suicide Prevention in the Department of Defense: Status of Current Research, Prioritizing Areas of Need, and Recommendations for Moving Forward.

摘要

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been increasingly concerned about the elevated rate of suicide among U.S. service members. At the end of the last decade, a report by the RAND Corporation (Ramchand et al., 2011) and another by the congressionally mandated Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces offered a series of recommendations to help strengthen DoD's suicide prevention programs. The task force's final recommendation was for DoD to create a united, strategic, and comprehensive DoD plan for research in military suicide prevention ensuring that the DoD's military suicide prevention research portfolio is thoughtfully planned to cover topics in prevention, intervention, and postvention (U.S. Department of Defense Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces, 2010, p. ES-18). Shortly after the task force report s release, the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (NAASP), a public-private partnership charged with advancing the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, established the Research Prioritization Task Force to develop an agenda for research with the stated goal to reduce morbidity (attempts) and mortality (deaths), each by at least 20% in five years and 40% or greater in 10 years, if implemented fully and successfully (NAASP, 2014, p. 7; emphasis in original). This report, produced by the RAND National Defense Research Institute, represents an effort to assist DoD in creating a strategic research plan that aligns with the national research agenda. This study's objective was to provide guidance that DoD could use to develop the recommended united, strategic, and comprehensive plan. The study was organized around three overarching research aims.