Interactive Army video addresses suicide

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Interactive Army video addresses suicide
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Feb 14, 2008 13:33:17 EST

POTOMAC, Md. — Trying to stem a record surge in suicides, the Army is preparing an interactive video that will have soldiers play the role of a 19-year-old GI in Iraq ready to kill himself.

Make wrong choices for the fictional character — such as choosing not to confide in a friend — and he tries to kill himself.

He is shown fantasizing about suicide, said screenwriter Chris Stezin, in a barracks scene where the character points an M4 rifle at himself. Later, if the player avoids seeking help, the character grows more despondent and is shown entering his barracks. A gunshot is then heard, and the screen fades to black.

“It’s not a successfully completed suicide. Even worse, arguably, it’s an unsuccessful attempt, which results in this guy being basically a vegetable,” said Stezin, who works for Will Interactive, a film production company creating the video. “For soldiers to take this seriously, we can’t shy away from showing what might happen. It’s the reality.”

The interactive film, to be unveiled in April, is one of several Army attempts to stem suicides. According to Army numbers, as many as 121 soldiers may have committed suicide in 2007. There were 89 confirmed and 32 suspected cases. That compares with 52 Army suicides in 2001 and 79 in 2003, the first year of the Iraq war. The Army suicide rate in 2006 was 17.5 per 100,000, the highest since rate estimates began in 1980. The civilian rate is 11 per 100,000.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/gns_suicidevideo_080214/