The Army's new suicide awareness class

[shutterm4]

Has anyone taken this class with their unit? It is actually a pretty good course that is designed to help soldiers recognize battle buddies who are strugling and it also makes people aware of what the need to do if they are having suicidal thoughts. I am just curios what you all thought about it if you have taken it. We did it 2 drill's ago and i was actually impressed that the army put something of quality out that is actually worth doing.

[notyetdead]

I thought the materials were pretty solid.

I can see how the effectiveness of the class is going to depend a lot on how the person conducting it runs it. If the presenter rushes the process, guides the audience to the right answers, and doesn't try to get some discussion going, I think it really reduces how worthwhile it is.

I also think it helps to have some folks who've seen combat in the room. PTSD and the like are always funnier to the 17 year old who's idea of stress is a mid-term.

[crimeguy]

we went though the video last drill, a bad choice was made and the SFC died so it made us start over.

[California Major]

We kept making the same decision, and he kept killing himself. You'd think he would have learned eventually!

In all seriousness, it was probably some of the better "video training" the Army has produced. Worthwhile course, especially the scenario about handling the stress under combat.

[plano2001]

Our NCOIC couldn't find the new course, so instead he pulled up the old out-dated power point slides. Boring.

I think the unfortunate effect is a lot of the kiddos weren't really paying attention or thinking much of it besides enjoying not being outside marching.

[GutshotStraight]

At one point we chose "take him by force" and when we resumed under that choice the video narrator said "Take him by force? Really?"

That was a light moment during otherwise serious instruction.

LOL

[notyetdead]

[QUOTE=GutshotStraight]At one point we chose "take him by force" and when we resumed under that choice the video narrator said "Take him by force? Really?"

That was a light moment during otherwise serious instruction.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, there was a fair bit of humor in the thing, wasn't it? I thought they really went to some effort to make something that could be incredibly dry into something watchable. Good mix of the heavy with the light.

[SteveLord]

[QUOTE=GutshotStraight]At one point we chose "take him by force" and when we resumed under that choice the video narrator said "Take him by force? Really?"

That was a light moment during otherwise serious instruction.

LOL[/QUOTE]

Yeah we chose that too. Acting was funny as heck.

[Anternal]

same here, we did our's last drill it was pretty informative

[HeelToeSTi]

I learned a great deal from it and it looked like the creators took the time to make it entertaining/involving as well. We still had some privates nod off, though. Had to pay for that later. :rolleyes:

[apagea99]

I took the course in "Red Phase" at RSP last month. I thought it was pretty good, especially after all the power point presentations we dredged through that day. White Phase sat in with us and I'm hoping that doesn't mean I have to do it again if there's a new Red Phase this weekend. It was good, but I don't want to have to do it again.

[dorque]

I'm glad to hear about this.

[SteveLord]

It's a great quality presentation that reduces the chances of troops falling asleep watching it. Plus, it takes up less time while still getting the point across...thus not cutting into training time for commanders as much.

[shutterm4]

The nice thing about it is that there are several different paths to follow, so if you have to do it again you can do the NCO instead of the Lower enlisted.

We intentionally led our character down the wrong path to illustrate an extreme situation. He died, and then we resumed and we made the better choices. Our commander choose to present it and did a great job. I was imprssed that the army put together a briefing that didn't consist of a lame powerpoint.