Military Chaplaincy On the Forefront of Suicide Intervention
Father Jonathan Landon, a US Army chaplain, recently completed a five-day course to become qualified as a trainer for the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) program. As the Brigade Chaplain for the US Army 2d Recruiting Brigade, Chaplain (Major) Landon shares responsibility with the other chaplains and chaplain assistants of the US Army Recruiting Command to train all Army Recruiting Station Commanders in suicide intervention.
Recognizing that the demands of recruiting duty are very difficult for Soldiers and for their families, Recruiting Command incorporates the two-day ASIST program in the Recruiting Station Commanders’ Course at the Soldier Support Institute, Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
The ASIST program teaches a model that is described as “suicide first aid”, which can be performed by people from all walks of life, and not only by counseling professionals. It is not intended to replace the more traditional resources such as hotlines, community counselors, clergy, medical treatment and mental health treatment. It extends the capabilities of these resources by equipping community members to identify people at risk of suicide, helping them to recognize supportive resources and to develop a concrete and practical plan to employ those resources to prevent suicide.
The military services have enthusiastically embraced the ASIST program’s Suicide Intervention Model (SIM) as a tremendously valuable tool to include as part of a comprehensive suicide prevention program.
Fr. Landon’s brigade includes about 3000 Soldiers and Department of the Army civilians located in eight states, plus Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands. In addition to training at the ASIST workshops for Recruiting Station Commanders, as Brigade Chaplain, Fr. Landon ensures that each Soldier assigned to the eight recruiting battalions in the brigade receives annual suicide awareness and prevention education. Fr. Landon presents most of these programs himself. However, because the conflicting schedules, sometimes his chaplain assistant or another chaplain presents this training.
These specific duties – together with the more traditional, pastoral ministries of worship leadership, counseling, devotional messages and religious education – give military chaplains an opportunity to contribute to a command climate that offers healing and grace to overcome the influence of the culture of death, and offers military service members, their families, and others healing grace and support to encourage them to choose life.
Fr. Landon lives in Senoia, GA, with Rebeka, his wife of 21 years, and their three children. He has been a chaplain on active duty for eight and a half years. He has served in the Army for twenty-three years, including both active duty and Reserve service. When his military duties permit, he serves as Priest-in-Residence at Christ the King Church in Sharpsburg, GA.
