(NYDailyNews) – Depressed soldiers who seek help for suicidal thoughts have been publicly mocked by higherups, military medical experts told the Daily News.

The bullying involves “humiliating-type behavior in ranks, formations, where soldiers were singled out and identified as someone who is suicidal, publicly ridiculed, and things along that nature,” said Army Maj. Gen. Philip Volpe.

“They call a person out in front of a formation and chew ‘em out” in a misguided effort at “tough love,” said Bonnie Carroll, a retired Air Force major and head of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. “They tell them, ‘You dishonored your unit. You’re worthless.’”

Volpe, who with Carroll led the Pentagon’s suicide-prevention task force, said he has witnessed bullying – and in one case relieved a lieutenant colonel who was verbally abusing a distraught soldier.

As military suicide rates continue to rise as a result of multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Army and the other services have struggled to erase the longstanding stigma of seeking professional help. Read More Here

No related posts.