On December 8, 2011, the Tennessee National Guard, The Jason Foundation, Inc, and E4 Health launched Guard Your Buddy, a charter anti-suicide app aimed at helping struggling soldiers contemplating suicide, as well as their families, friends, and fellow guardsmen. In addition to the app, the collaborative group launched a website, complete with the same contact and communication information and resources offered by the app. The Tennessee National Guard is the first branch of the National Guard to collaborate on and launch this type of suicide prevention and awareness program.
The launch of the Guard Your Buddy app follows a significant increase in the number of reservists and guardsmen who committed suicide; this number nearly doubled from 2009 to 2010. This increase in suicides amongst guardsmen contrasts with a decrease in active duty suicides, perhaps as a result of an increase in face-to-face post-deployment behavioral health screenings and related services. According to the Army Times, because guardsmen see their commanders much less than their active duty counterparts, as little as once a month, it’s more difficult to inform them about suicide prevention programs and resources. Aside from this, the National Guard is having a difficult time identifying any prominent cause of these suicides.
In collaborating with The Jason Foundation and E4 Health, the Tennessee National Guard draws on the skills of two organizations experienced in suicide prevention and emotional and behavioral assistance. In 1997, Clark Flatt, now president and CEO of The Jason Foundation, established the non-profit after his 16-year-old son Jason committed suicide. The Jason Foundation provides educational curriculum and training programs for students, youth workers, educators, and families to build awareness of youth suicide and aid in its prevention. The Jason Foundation seeks to provide individuals and organizations with the tools and resources to help identify and assist at-risk youth. E4 Health is a contracted health services provider that uses Employee Assistance Programs to provide resources to help employees make positive behavioral choices to improve health and well-being.
Guard Your Buddy, both the app and website, provides guardsmen with a 24-hour anonymous phone line, as well as email and a soon-to-come live chat feature. The app includes a “Talk Now” button that connects guardsmen to a masters-level or above clinician. In addition to this immediate help available, Guard Your Buddy also has a variety of resources addressing family concerns such as childcare, elder care, and education, financial concerns including tips for staying out of financial trouble, choosing a good lawyer, and buying a used care, and emotional or concerns about emotions or personal well being, from anger to sorrow, love to insomnia. The vision for the site includes an ever-growing database of articles, links, contact information, and other resources for guardsmen addressing the areas of suicide prevention, resources, family, money, and feelings.
The Tennessee National Guard and The Jason Foundation have created an impressive app in that it not only provides immediate help for a guardsman in crisis, but also tries to address the underlying causes of guardsmen suicides. While the Army doesn’t know exactly what caused the spike in suicides, though problems with relationships or finances have been indicated, Guard Your Buddy provides guidance in such fundamental areas, such as accessing community resources, childcare, and managing finances, that it can provide assistance to even those struggling guardsmen not considered at-risk for suicide.
As of January 2012, every Tennessee guardsman will be required to carry a card with the Guard Your Buddy website and app information on it. The Guard is also encouraging its members to pass the app information onto their buddies (hence the name of the app), especially if they notice any warning signs. Though the site is still incomplete – the financial section, for instance, could be more thorough – it does the best it can to create a safety net around the Tennessee guardsmen.
Guard Your Buddy provides hopefully preventative support and information for members of the National Guard and also educates guardsmen and their support networks about suicide warning signs. The app also tries to address what the Tennessee Adjutant General called “a stigma in the military about suicide,” by making the phone calls anonymous.
If only the Tennessee National Guard could create a system to make certain that guardsmen reach out in a time of need, their system might be perfect. As good as the Guard Your Buddy system may be, it’s still not a substitute for actively educating the National Guard population and their families. Really, a combination of active education and resources like Guard Your Buddy that guardsmen can access on their own would be ideal, and the Guard Your Buddy app is a step towards that ideal, one which will hopefully be made more widely available in the coming months.
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