Since day one as Secretary of Defense, the health, safety, and well-being of our military community has been one of my top priorities. Taking care of our people — the brave patriots who serve in uniform and their families — is a sacred responsibility. And it is crucial to maintaining the readiness of the Total Force. Tragically, the Department continues to lose Service members and members of their families to suicide.
Today, the Department released our Calendar Year 2023 Annual Report on Suicide in the Military. The findings urgently demonstrate the need for the Department to redouble its work in the complex fields of suicide prevention and postvention. In 2023, we lost more Service members to suicide than in 2022, although we did see a decrease in the number of military family members who died by suicide compared to previous years. One loss to suicide is one too many.
The Department is focused on long-term, sustained initiatives to prevent suicide. The Department is taking a comprehensive, integrated approach to increasing protective factors and decreasing suicide risk. Our efforts aim to meet the military community where they are in their personal and professional lives — whether through bolstering financial readiness and support, building healthy relationships, improving mental health, or supporting them through life transitions.
This is why, in 2023, I directed a new suicide prevention campaign plan with five lines of effort to guide the Department's suicide prevention and response efforts. This plan includes 83 key enabling actions adopted and modified from the approved Suicide Prevention Response and Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC) recommendations.
The Department is moving out urgently to implement these key reforms. In 2024, the Department completed 20 of the 83 SPRIRC recommendations. In Fiscal Year 2025, with the support of Congress, the Department will make an unprecedented investment in suicide prevention. We have witnessed that principled leadership and focused resource investment makes a difference and can decrease harmful behaviors.
We are dedicated to fighting for our Service members by fostering supportive team cultures and tackling the stigma of asking for help and other barriers to care. We continue working hard to improve the delivery of mental health care, bolster suicide prevention training, and educate people about lethal means safety. There's still much more work to do, and we won't let up.
The Department mourns our teammates whom we've lost to suicide. And through our actions — by taking care of our people, and prioritizing the health, well-being, and morale of our Force — we honor their memories.
If you or one of your loved ones are struggling or needs extra support, you are not alone. Please call the suicide and crisis lifeline at 9-8-8.
