The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced May 17 that Gayle Iwamasa will lead the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee, which addresses the issue of suicides in the American military.
Iwamasa has served as a national director in the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs since October 2020. She was a National Mental Health Quality Improvement and Implementation Consultant in the department for the prior 10 years.
The DOD expects recommendations from the committee to be applied across all branches of the military. The first report is due to the secretary in December 2022 and the final reports are due to Congress in February 2023.
After graduating from Purdue University in 1992 with a doctorate in clinical psychology, Iwamasa worked as an assistant professor at Ball State University and Oklahoma State University, and she later served as an associate professor at the University of Indianapolis and DePaul University.
Iwamasa also worked as a psychology director in Logansport State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Indiana, from June 2008 to October 2010.
The Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee will work toward addressing and preventing suicides and, as part of that work, will visit military installations inside the country and overseas, interview individuals, and conduct confidential surveys of service members at the designated locations.
The committee is expected to produce reports that will detail actionable improvements to policies, programs, processes, and resources to prevent suicides in the military.
There were 24 deaths by suicide among reserve members in the same quarter, an increase of 5 from the prior year. In the National Guard, there were 23 suicide deaths, which was down by 18 deaths compared to the same period in 2020.
There were 518 total deaths by suicide in the U.S. armed forces in 2021.
“We’re increasing access to mental health care, expanding telehealth capacities, and fighting the tired old stigmas against seeking help,” he said.