the mental health care that will prevent these mass murder suicides is

[mopinko]

suicide prevention. you don't have to treat and cure everybody, although we should. but effective suicide prevention would prevent these tragedies, because they are, ultimately, suicides. the fact that a lot of other people would have their lives saved, and get into treatment means that a lot of pain and suffering that doesn't make it onto the front page gets alleviated, too.

what would you do if you had a magic wand to prevent suicides?

[Glaug-Eldare]

1. What would I do?

Well, it'd look like the Olympic torch relay, but with thousands of people wagging a wand back and forth instead of a torch!

Seriously, though, I really think you make a good point. A suicidal outlook can make some pretty extreme behaviors look like real options, and I suspect a lot of murder-suicides (not just mass ones) result from a person feeling that they can at least punish a transgressor before they go, without facing any (involuntary) consequences. There ain't a magic wand, though, so what do you suggest for improving treatment? One thing I'd like to do is bolster legal protections for those who seek treatment -- that doctor's office should look like (and be) a road to being healed and whole, and not a frightening dungeon where, as soon as you sign your name, you're going to be logged and flogged and humiliated for the rest of your life.

[Separation]

2. IMHO suicide prevention doesn't work

Let me clarify that. I don't think it works for somebody that is planning suicide. I have to attend suicide prevention training twice a year as do all other active duty personnel. 1 AD member per day and 18 veterans per day is the current rate. It definitely is not slowing down. But with all that said...I guess it is better than nothing.

Now, what it might do is educate a person to recognize the warning signs of his buddy that he is planning suicide. I have 3 active duty friends that have committed suicide. One just did it 2 weeks ago. Nobody saw it coming, we are still looking for something that we missed.

If I had a magic wand to prevent suicides....I think it would be to erase mental illness from this planet.

[mopinko]

7. i think guys hide it better.

or maybe we just don't recognize the signs. seems to always be the case that people are shocked.

someday there will be blood tests for mental illnesses, and better brain imaging, and this stuff can be caught. and understood. maybe even prevented.

[Separation]

9. Great point.

Men for the most part won't ask for help, add the stigma of suicide as a weakness, and there ya go.

[mopinko]

11. so, what is the key?

there has got to be a clue or something somewhere. or something that you give guys, especially in the military, like a safe word, a safe person. permission to be human.

[mopinko]

4. the level of understanding is pathetic. pr would have to be a big part.

the stigma of getting help, and that big step of thinking the unthinkable. nobody wants to think that someone could die. and if you do, you think that you can't help them. and maybe you can't.
knowing what works, letting people know what works and what to do seem like they ought to be simple things. why aren't they?
seems like if we can build and program a drone that can run up your dryer vent and kill your family we ought to have a clue how to get someone to hang on for another day.

so much suffering in the world. maybe these shootings are like early storms in the change of human climate. maybe we have just fucked it up so bad that there are not enough emotional reserves to hold a civilization together.

[mopinko]

12. get the drug companies.

honestly, for all the hate about ads for drugs, i think they have brought things out that ought to be brought out.
it would be tricky, but they could take it a step further.

[easttexaslefty]

5. Wow, if I had the ability to write

I would write a book about this subject.
Unfortunately, I've seen this issue WAY up to close and personal. My son suicided in 2007 ( no signs of depression, 33, happy; a perfect "storm" of bullshit & he made a impulsive decision, in our opinion) my following suicide attempt, hospitalization and 5 year struggle with suicidal ideation AND my surviving son works in the mental health field ( working with the under-insured and uninsured).

[mopinko]

6. people need to change the mental image they have of the mentally ill.

these are deadly diseases we are talking about here. and contagious, as you show. (i would find it so hard not to do the same in your shoes)
you really can't get by with a broken brain. you need support, or you fall apart.
to you and yours

[Separation]

10. I am so sorry

I can only imagine the pain that you have gone through. I can only hope you know that there are people who care about you. Even us anonymous Internet people that that type words to each other.