Organized by local Legionnaire, Columbia Lighthouse Project’s Wendy Lakso delivers suicide prevention training in-person to more than 50 residents of Central Indiana.
Through The American Legion’s partnership with The Columbia Lighthouse Project, members of the Legion Family have the opportunity to take Be the One suicide prevention training through multiple virtual sessions each month.
And while that training is both valuable and effective, Wendy Lakso – The Columbia Lighthouse Project’s director of partnerships and veteran and military initiatives – says in-person training has an added component.
That’s why Lakso made the trip to Greenfield, Ind., on Nov. 5 to provide the training in front of more than 50 area residents, including members of the Legion Family from both Post 119 in Greenfield and Post 182 in nearby New Palestine.
The evening session was organized by Tony Cross, the Legion’s former national Be the One program manager and now first vice commander at American Legion Post 182.
“Mental health is every day. It’s not a matter of how old you are or where you’re at in life. Mental health affects all of us,” Cross said prior to the training session. “This isn’t just a once-a-month thing during the year. This is not one day a month. It’s every day. And the people sitting in this room, I hope when you walk out of here you feel comfortable enough to deal with it. It’s not a weakness to struggle. It’s a strength, and you need to talk to somebody about it.”
Those who take The American Legion-Columbia University training are then equipped to:
· Use the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale to determine at-risk individuals.
· Identify risk factors and warning signs.
· Outline the types of suicidal ideation and four behaviors that indicate imminent risk.
· Communicate effectively with an individual who may be at risk of hurting themselves.
“This is the most valid suicide prevention tool we have today,” Lakso said. “It’s a global tool, nearly in 100 different countries.”
And while that can be done virtually, Lakso – who previously served as director of partnership in VA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, as the Army Suicide Prevention Program chief – said there is an added benefit to the in-person training.
“Both trainings are going to equip you with the skills that you need and the tools that you need to be able to start the conversation,” she said. “I think we have wonderful virtual training, but when virtual training’s done, it’s done. The camera goes off and everybody leaves.
“In-person, the beauty about that is there’s more interaction. We can stay after the training ends and have a dialog. And it may go over the timeframe a little bit. And that’s OK, because people have stories. And people have things that they’d like to voice and questions that they’d sometimes like to ask that they can’t do virtually. In-person really is more effective for that complete dialog back and forth.”
Prior to going over the actual training, Lakso provided statistics about veteran suicide, including that 6,488 veterans took their own lives in 2024, the most recent data available through VA.
She said one of best ways to reduce suicide is to make people understand it’s OK to both ask for help or ask if someone is struggling. “We want to make it harder to attempt suicide. We want to normalize certain things like help-seeking,” she said. “Stigma is still around. We hear it all the time. But you know what? It is getting better. Stigma’s decreasing, but we have to make sure, even with that decreasing, why help-seeking isn’t increasing. A lot of times that doesn’t balance out. We may talk about it more, but we’re not going and seeking help more.”
Post 119 and 182 are in the process of merging. Once they do, Lakso challenged its members to put together resources available in the community available to those struggling, so that after taking the Columbia training, they’ll be able to refer people to those resources.
Leadership at both posts said Be the One will be a priority:
· American Legion Post 182 Commander Kirbie Young said that “The Be the One mission is very important. It’s the mission of the Legion, but it should be the mission of all veterans: to try to be there for each other and help each other out. We all struggle. I’m not immune to it.”
· American Legion Post 119 Commander Bob Perew called the merging of the two posts has created a “shared goal is to serve our communities and fellow veterans – especially those struggling with mental illness. There’s a lot of those guys out there, folks. The slogan ‘Be the One’ became our lasting commitment. That purpose that brings us here tonight: to give our members the tools to help all veterans and anyone facing mental illness, regardless of who they are. We’re not just talking about veterans. We’re talking about everybody.”
Lakso said stemming the tide of veteran suicide has to receive support at the grass-roots level. “It really stems from a community effort,” she said. “When we look at a public health approach, it’s looking at a model where everybody is involved in suicide prevention and what it takes to start that conversation and the tools that it takes and the resources you need. So it really needs to stem not just from the top down, but also the bottom up – and bottom up meaning community.”
- Be the One