Yuma leadership assesses Corps’ suicide prevention training

Station leadership attended a suicide prevention site brief at the station chapel, May 1-3.

Led by Master Gunnery Sgt. Phillip Bush, senior enlisted advisor for behavioral health, Headquarters Marine Corps, staff noncommissioned officers and officers gathered to understand where the Corps’ suicide prevention programs are heading.

“The purpose of my brief is to inform leaders of current initiatives in the overall suicide prevention programs,” said Bush, a native of Newton, N.C.

Presentors discussed different methods of suicide prevention as well as how to best use training.

Bush described the most important points of his brief as:

“Suicide prevention is a priority in the Marine Corps.

Suicide is preventable.

As Marines we can help to prevent suicide by simply knowing our Marines.”

“The focus is on senior leaders with the assumption that by approaching this from the top, the methods, knowledge and idioms will disseminate across the forces,” he added.

The Corps’ prevalent Never Leave a Marine Behind program is perhaps the most well-known suicide prevention training, and slated to be the only program on suicide prevention in use by the Marine Corps, according to Sgt. Lydwin Grizzle, the Headquarters & Headquarters Squadron safety manager and one of the master instructors on NLMB on base.

According to Marine Administrative Message 228/11, which officially implemented the NLMB training in April 2011, “the objective of the SNCO and officer Never Leave A Marine Behind suicide prevention training is to support leaders in their efforts to promote resilience, encourage Marines and sailors to seek help early and maintain an ongoing dialogue on suicide prevention.”