Circle of Trust: Suicide and the Returning Veterans

Seminar Date: July 1, 2009

Presented By: Melissa Slagle, LCSW

The shocking rate of suicides among our men and women returning from war make it clear that we need to take action. The VA estimates that more than 5,000 veterans take their lives each year. Suicide rates by some estimates are 35 to 50 percent higher for Iraq veterans than for general populations. The Department of Defense recently reported that the Army is now seeing the highest rate of suicide since the Vietnam War. This is a genuine crisis, and it requires an urgent, stepped-up response from our communities at large.

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Melissa Slagle, LCSW

Melissa Slagle, MSW, LCSW, LMFT, CTS, received her Masters of Science in Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington and her Bachelors from Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has a private practice at LIVING SOLUTIONS Christian Counseling, Inc. She is the owner of Living Solutions Crisis Management Training & Consultants in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the founder of the International Chaplain Academy. She is a founding member and on the board of Called to Crisis Intl., and has served on the board of several disaster related organizations. She has extensive experience in disaster response (weather related and man made work place and school violence); traumatic stress; critical incident stress debriefing and intervention, and working with war veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

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Circle of Trust: Suicide and the Returning Veterans

Seminar Date: July 1, 2009

Presented By: Melissa Slagle, LCSW

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Melissa Slagle, LCSW