FORT IRWIN, Calif. — The Fort Irwin Suicide Prevention Program hosted a first-of-its-kind suicide prevention course on March 26-28.
The Ask, Care, Escort- Suicide Intervention (ACE-SI) class is an intense three-day course that enables soldiers to learn the “ACE” model, facilitation strategies to utilize when teaching the trainers, and teaching back the material learned.
Master Resilience Trainer and course instructor, Sharon Ku, said, “ACE-SI is a gatekeeper training meant to reinforce key suicide intervention concepts in order to encourage subordinate trust and help-seeking behavior. It assists leaders in identifying Solders at risk for suicide so they can intervene and trust help-seeking behavior.”
Staff Sgt. Johnathan Madrid was one of the first students in the class. “I honestly thought that this would just be another brief on Ask, Care, and Escort,” he said. “I expected to just sit in a class to hear about ACE but ended up having a great experience sharing our situations with soldiers at their lowest point in life and how we as leaders handled it with very little training.”
The class offers a proactive approach by teaching important and informative material to leaders and soldiers in positions of trust. The class challenges the stigma behind help-seeking and mental health and having tools to build trust with their subordinates.
According to Staff Sgt. Madrid, “Everyone wants to think they can handle all the stressors the Army and life throws our way but without the proper tools and resources, it can easily become overwhelming. This training provided some of the best information on how we can reintegrate our soldiers and further take care of them through postvention, which was missing from the ACE training model.’” He added, “treating our soldiers with respect after they just experienced one of the hardest things in their life is key in making our soldiers feel a part of the team again and through empathy, we can sustain this bond of trust.
Mr. David Johnson, Fort Irwin’s Suicide Prevention Program Manager, plans on hosting additional ACE-SI classes in the near future with a class scheduled for May. “As the Suicide Prevention Program Manager (SPPM), I support both military and civilian members on suicide prevention with a goal of reducing suicidal behavior,” he said. “It is my goal to educate everyone on post to understand the importance of knowing how ACE and ACE-SI can help change a potential drastic situation. Once everyone has the knowledge of both ACE and ACE-SI and is able to implement it effectively, it can help to eradicate suicide as a whole at Fort Irwin.”
If you or a loved one are feeling distressed or hopeless, thinking about death or wanting to die, please contact the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
