Behavioral health check-ups could soon be as routine for soldiers as teeth cleanings
Davis Winkie
The 18th Airborne Corps plans to implement ideas to curb suicide in the ranks that five soldiers presented last week at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The troops who pitched their ideas to senior leaders and suicide prevention experts were finalists in the corps’ most recent “Dragon’s Lair” competition, a Shark Tank-style program where soldiers of any rank can submit ideas for consideration. They ranged in rank from private first class to colonel.
Army Lt. Gen. Erik Kurilla, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, “agreed to implement some element from each of the five ideas presented,” said Col. Joe Buccino, the unit’s spokesperson. “These five soldiers — and many others — have ideas to prevent soldier suicide. That is the point of Dragon’s Lair: unlocking those ideas, empowering them, and then implementing across the corps.”
One soldier whose idea caught the eye of her superiors was Cpt. Kristen Bell, an operations officer then-assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/06/01/behavioral-health-check-ups-could-soon-be-as-routine-for-soldiers-as-teeth-cleanings/
