Military suicide prevention: Do families matter?

Research into suicide in military communities has proliferated in recent decades, yet military and Veteran families remain obscured in suicide-prevention research and practice. To disrupt suicide in military communities, recognition of the inseparability of family from this issue must occur. This article brings together recent research findings in complement with other literature to describe paradoxes, contradictions, and unintended consequences of not attending to the needs and experiences of military and Veteran families. The authors attribute a narrow prevention logic to prevailing assumptions and the entrenchment of cultural norms around both suicide and families. They suggest future efforts toward suicide-prevention research and practice that should take into consideration military and Veteran families beyond explanatory or utility functions. Indeed, families and family relationships are not passive or static entities, nor are they fungible for the benefit of individual service members, Veterans or military institutions.