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Handbook of Suicidal Behaviour pp 523–541Cite as

Addressing Suicides in Special Operations Forces: Enhancing Resilience in a Unique Population

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Abstract

Suicides within the US military’s most elite personnel, the Special Operations Forces (SOF), are on the rise. With these highly trained and versatile service members representing a crucial military asset due to the unpredictable nature of modern warfare, preserving the ability of these individuals to carry out their deployments is a high priority. As opposed to efforts that explicitly aim to prevent suicide, recent programmes have emerged that aim to increase resilience. The research on the potential utility of resilience enhancement as suicide prevention will be reviewed. Example programmes that have been implemented with SOF and related groups such as other military branches, law enforcement, and first responders will be examined. Lastly, caveats and future directions in addressing the strain on these unique individuals will be described.

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  1. Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, USA

    Bruce Bongar, Catherine Hausman & Gabrielle Agin-Liebes

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  1. Bruce Bongar
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  2. Catherine Hausman
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  3. Gabrielle Agin-Liebes
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Correspondence to Catherine Hausman .

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  1. Defence Institute of Psychological Research, Defence Research and Development Organization, Delhi, India

    Updesh Kumar

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Bongar, B., Hausman, C., Agin-Liebes, G. (2017). Addressing Suicides in Special Operations Forces: Enhancing Resilience in a Unique Population. In: Kumar, U. (eds) Handbook of Suicidal Behaviour. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4816-6_28

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