Armed Forces Mission as a founding member of the Texas based Stronger Alliance will head to Houston as soon as funds are secured to provide much needed training in suicide intervention and mental health first aid. We invite you to Stand with Houston to help restore a culture of mental health that has been severely impacted by the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.

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July 4, 2016, On the set in Texas with Carla McDougal for filming of the movie, We Are Stronger

Support Stand With Houston to provide much needed training in suicide intervention. 

​Harvey and the Increased Risk of Suicide?
By Chaplain Kenneth Koon
Suicidologist have studied the effects of disaster related suicide since London was blitzed with bombs in World War II. For a period after the 57 days of nightly bombing, suicide and even drunkenness greatly decreased.  Similar findings were revealed after 9-11, Hurricane Ike and Katrina, and many other disasters. There is always a brief time after disaster that people pull together after a catastrophic event. We often see this in microcosm when a family member dies. Differences are set aside; there is a coming together for the common good to honor the decedent…then the WILL is read and all hell breaks loose, words fly, and fragile relationships are shattered beyond repair.  In the same way, there is a honeymoon or pulling together phenomenon that takes place with disaster, but at some point, the honeymoon is over. In this regard, it is like the soldier that earns a purple heart saving his battle buddy, but years later takes his own life.

In 1999, due to faulty data, The New England Journal of Medicine retracted their statement that suicide rates increase after natural disaster. Coming from a prestigious medical journal, others naturally assumed that disaster does not increase the risk of suicide. However, a bit of common sense is in order here. Take large scale disaster out of the equation for a moment. Risk of suicide increases whenever there is an unfavorable change in circumstances that is viewed as a loss. In suicide intervention we often talk about the perfect storm. Hurricane Harvey is the epitome of the perfect storm.  

More recent research (2012) from the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention concluded that “the effects of natural disasters include stress and somatic and mental health problems, including suicidal ideation.”  An August 2015 report Suicide After Disaster by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) revealed a reduction in suicidal risk factors stating, “this effect might not be long-lasting.” The SAMHSA report goes on, “This may be explained by the elevated level of social support and care available in this period.” The results of hundreds of research reports remain inclusive. “The studies show different directions in suicide mortality following natural disasters.” (SAMHSA).

At AFM, we refuse to sit ideally by while the statisticians figure the numbers. Again, common sense and a compassionate heart should prevail. Our concern is people. Half a million people will seek assistance from FEMA for repairs to their homes, 30,000 will need temporary housing, those who did not lose their cars in floods will lose them for inability to pay the car note, because they are out of a job at the mom and pop restaurant that couldn’t recover, individuals robbed at gun point by those they thought were coming to save them will suffer nightmares and PTSD, and at least 60 families will bury their dead. Any statistician that would argue that natural disaster does not increase suicide has their head in the sand.  

AFM in partnership with the Stronger Alliance has established Stand with Houston for the specific purpose of providing much needed community training in suicide intervention and mental health first aid that will be needed in the months and years to come when the honeymoon is long over and the loss sinks in.

We invite you to Stand with Houston.