Table 2.

Study Recommendations

Recommendation Category	Recommendations
Further strengthen the existing suicide surveillance system by adding elements to the DoDSER, enumerating suicide rates among members of the reserve component, and conducting in-depth investigations on suicide decedents.	1. Incorporate fields in the DoDSER that identify data sources and the timing and severity thresholds for stressful life events. 2. Create a process to enumerate suicides among reservists and members of the National Guard not on active duty. 3. Conduct psychological autopsies on all or a sample of confirmed suicides and on a specified control group on an ongoing basis.
Prepare an organizational response to suicide by developing a plan that specifies actions and responsible actors and ensures sufficient resources.	4. Ensure that installations and military organizations are ready to respond to suicide with a detailed plan, dedicated staff responsible for implementing the plan, and sufficient resources to enact the plan. 5. Ensure that installations include in their suicide response plan a process for guiding any memorial services they conduct.
Work with the media to encourage factual reporting and minimize sensationalism of suicides.	6. View the media as a partner and encourage journalists to comply with media guidelines.
Identify individuals at high risk.	7. Implement a systematic process for identifying and referring at-risk individuals. Screening may help prevent future suicides, though there is little evidence suggesting how frequent, widespread, or extensive it should be.
Establish greater uniformity across CAOs in how they handle suicide deaths, consistent with standards.	8. Prioritize reducing variability in the quality of CAOs.
Educate leaders, CAOs, and other support personnel about the grieving process, including complicated grief; train health care providers in evidence-based treatments.	9. Make leaders and CAOs aware that grief is a normal process following death, and sudden deaths, such as those from suicide, may produce different manifestations of grief. 10. Ensure that care providers and others (e.g., military psychologists and psychiatrists, mental health providers, family counselors) who may come into contact with grieving loss survivors are aware of the symptoms of complicated grief and the cognitive behavioral approaches that have demonstrated efficacy in treating complicated grief.
Reconsider whether eligibility for DoD and VA benefits should be affected by LoD determinations, and support loss survivors in making informed decisions about benefits.	11. Consider modifying eligibility for the Survivor Benefits Plan and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation to ensure that suicide loss survivors have access to these benefits. 12. Ensure that the timing and presentation of benefits take into account loss survivors' ability to process this information in the acute period following their loss.