What the Military Taught Us About Preventing Suicide
Veteran suicide remains one of the most persistent suicide prevention challenges in the United States.
In 2023, 6,398 U.S. veterans died by suicide, an average of 17.5 people every day. While the number of veteran suicide deaths declined slightly from the previous year, the suicide rate among veterans increased.
The numbers become even more alarming when we look at veterans compared with the rest of the U.S. adult population. In 2023, the suicide rate among veterans was 35.2 per 100,000, compared with 16.9 per 100,000 among non-veteran U.S. adults.
Even after accounting for important demographic differences between the two populations, the disparity remains. In 2023, suicide rates increased among both male and female veterans while declining among their non-veteran counterparts.
Clearly, military service and veteran suicide deserve our attention.
But understanding the size of the problem is only part of the challenge.
How do we actually prevent it?
Some of the research that has helped answer that question was conducted with members of the U.S. military. It ultimately produced some of the strongest evidence supporting the suicide prevention intervention at the center of Love You Adam's work today.
A Different Question About Suicide Prevention
For years, much of suicide prevention has focused on identifying who might be suicidal: recognizing warning signs, assessing risk factors and trying to predict who is most likely to attempt suicide.
But suicide is extraordinarily difficult to predict.
What if, instead of relying on our ability to predict who will attempt suicide, we became better at helping someone survive a suicidal crisis when it occurs?
That question is at the heart of Crisis Response Planning (CRP).
CRP is a brief, evidence-based intervention that helps a person identify the strategies, resources and reasons for living that can help them navigate a suicidal crisis.
And one of the most important studies demonstrating its effectiveness happened at Fort Carson, Colorado.
The Fort Carson Study
In a randomized clinical trial, 97 active-duty U.S. Army soldiers who had recently experienced suicidal thoughts or had a history of a suicide attempt received one of two approaches during an emergency behavioral health visit.
One group received a contract for safety, an approach in which a suicidal person agrees not to harm themselves and to seek help if their suicidal thoughts worsen.
The other received Crisis Response Planning.
Researchers then followed the soldiers for six months.
The difference was striking.
Soldiers who received CRP were 76% less likely to attempt suicide during the follow-up period than those who received a contract for safety.
CRP was also associated with a faster decline in suicidal thoughts and fewer days of psychiatric hospitalization.
This wasn't simply an improvement in how soldiers felt about treatment.
It was a measurable reduction in suicide attempts.
Why This Research Matters Beyond the Military
The Fort Carson study involved active-duty soldiers, but the lesson that emerged from it is much larger.
We don't have to understand everything that brought someone to a suicidal crisis before we can intervene effectively.
We don't have to accurately predict who will attempt suicide.
And we don't have to wait until we've solved every underlying problem in someone's life before helping them survive the moment they're in.
We can help people develop practical tools they can use when a crisis happens.
That idea is central to the work we do at Love You Adam.
Today, we fund CRP training for mental health professionals so that more clinicians have access to an intervention backed by clinical research.
You can learn more about Crisis Response Planning and the research behind it.
The Challenge of Reaching Veterans
There is another finding in the latest veteran suicide data that deserves attention.
Of the veterans who died by suicide in 2023, 61% had not received VA health care during the previous year.
That matters.
The VA has built an extensive suicide prevention system, but not every veteran experiencing a suicidal crisis will walk through the doors of a VA facility.
Veterans also receive care from community mental health providers, hospitals, emergency departments and private practices. Some may not be receiving mental health care at all.
The VA itself describes veteran suicide prevention as a public health effort that extends beyond its own clinical system, involving VA and non-VA health care providers as well as families, employers and community organizations.
This reinforces something we believe strongly at Love You Adam:
Effective suicide prevention skills need to exist wherever people in crisis encounter care.
Putting Time Between a Crisis and a Fatal Decision
Veteran suicide prevention efforts also underscore the importance of lethal means safety.
The VA includes lethal means safety in its broader approach to suicide prevention, including counseling about securely storing firearms and medications.
The principle is straightforward: When someone is experiencing a suicidal crisis, increasing the time and distance between that person and a highly lethal method makes it harder to act on a suicidal impulse. That delay can allow the intensity of the crisis to lessen or give someone an opportunity to intervene.
It is not about assuming that access to a firearm or medication causes suicide.
It is about recognizing that suicidal crises can be temporary, and reducing immediate access to lethal means during the most dangerous moments can save a life.
You can learn more about Lethal Means Safety Counseling and why it matters.
From Military Research to Suicide Prevention Everywhere
This research matters deeply to our mission.
Some of the strongest evidence supporting Crisis Response Planning, the suicide prevention intervention Love You Adam trains mental health professionals to use, came from research with active-duty soldiers experiencing suicidal crises. What researchers learned helped demonstrate something incredibly important:
Suicide attempts can be reduced with specific, evidence-based interventions.
Today, the clinicians we help train work in communities across the United States and Canada. Some will treat veterans. Others will treat parents, teenagers, first responders, professionals or people whose lives look nothing like those of the soldiers at Fort Carson.
The intervention doesn't depend on someone fitting a particular profile.
A clinician works with someone to develop a personalized Crisis Response Plan that the person can use if a suicidal crisis occurs. The plan gives that person concrete steps and strategies to follow when they need them most.
That is why this military research matters far beyond the military.
And it's why Love You Adam works to put these skills into the hands of as many mental health professionals as we can.
Research Cited
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 2025 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, Part 1. VA suicide prevention strategy, including community-based prevention and lethal means safety.
2025 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, Part 1
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 2025 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report. Veteran suicide data through 2023, including veteran suicide deaths, rates, VA health care utilization and the VA's broader suicide prevention strategy.
2025 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, Part 2
Bryan, C. J., et al. “Effect of Crisis Response Planning vs. Contracts for Safety on Suicide Risk in U.S. Army Soldiers: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” Journal of Affective Disorders, 2017. Randomized clinical trial of 97 active-duty U.S. Army soldiers comparing Crisis Response Planning with contracts for safety.
