A qualitative study of special operations forces chaplaincy teams' relationship building for suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention.

Abstract

The U.S. special operations forces (SOF) contribute to a range of complex missions and experience high operational tempo, which may result in heightened professional and personal stressors. Those who are experiencing stressors may be reluctant to seek professional mental health services due to career concerns. The chaplaincy community is at the forefront of bearing and responding to the pain of others including those at risk for suicide. As a formative step to developing a tailored suicide prevention curriculum for the U.S. SOF religious support teams (RSTs), we sought to understand SOF RSTs' common strategies for suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention. We conducted confidential interviews with SOF RSTs via telephone and in person. We used an inductive thematic analysis to code a total of 57 transcripts. SOF RSTs prominently expressed that building relationships with SOF community members was foundational to their suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention practices: (a) Suicide prevention involved being available and cultivating a community of insiders who can provide resources as needed prior to crisis escalation; (b) Suicide intervention involved listening and responding to suicide risk and building autonomy for a suicidal SOF member to seek outside help; (c) Suicide postvention involved reaching out to suicide-loss survivors and grieving together through memorial services. The salient theme of building relationships points to opportunities to capitalize on RSTs' social connections and to enhance skills and resources for military suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).