The Base Chaplain called me at home late one Sunday night and said
he'd had a phone call from a hotline worker at the community SPS. The
SPS worker had asked for his help in a call that had come in from an
airman's wife. She had phoned the SPS from her home off-base and
threatened to kill her husband and then commit suicide.
The caller to the SPS had impulsively terminated the call to the SPS after
a few minutes, but in her responses to questions at the outset of the
interview, had given her phone number to the crisis worker. After she
hung up, the crisis worker judged the woman was more than moderately
lethal, and also that she might listen to a military Chaplain. That brought
on the call to the Base Chaplain.
After getting the specifics from the crisis worker, the Chaplain phoned
the woman and talked to her for about 10 minutes before she hung up on
him too. His conclusion, also, was that she was highly lethal for both
homicide and suicide. He phoned the Base Security Police and then the
Director of Personnel. The Chaplain was leaving that day for Viet Nam;
the Director of Personnel suggested he call me.
The Chaplain asked me to follow up. I called the woman. The
conversation was heavy, and lasted for more than 2 hours. The problem
was in marital relations, finances, and spouse abuse. We finally got
around to talking about on-base resources that might ease the load she
was carrying: the Staff Judge Advocate, Family Services and Medics.
Just listening, and then talking about potential on-base resources helped
to lower the pressure. She finally agreed to wait until morning, now only
a couple of hours distant, so that the resources we had discussed could
be consulted.
First thing that morning, I got the base Family Services people into the
act. They moved in fast, took control, got the airman's wife around to
talk to the right people, and did a lot themselves. I checked back later.
Family Services had her under their wing. She wasn't talking about
murder-suicide any more. It was going to be one day at a time for her
for a while. She now had somewhere on-base where she felt she could
turn, and people in whom she had some confidence.
Why hadn't the woman tried Family Services on her own? I don't know.
She chose the civilian community's suicide intervention resource. She
had other options, and she might have tried them too. What's my point?
Another instance in which military and civilian resources collaborated
and made the system work.