Facing and Flanking the Enemy: Stopping Military Suicide By Onward and Upward Founder, Dr. AnnaMaria Bliven

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, April 6, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- There should be two approaches to fighting and winning the battle in wartime, one from the front and one from the rear. The home front battle that many military veterans face transitioning from military life to civilian living, not to enter a dark place can be won with two approaches; one is reactionary and the other approach is proactive. The reactionary approach has been to build veteran housing community projects for homeless veterans to have a place to stay while they figure out the rest of their lives. This approach is not putting a stop to military suicides but is managing to decrease the number of homeless veterans.

The founder of Onward and Upward, Dr. AnnaMaria Bliven, a retired Master Sergeant and a former Army Counselor has created a new curriculum that is a proactive approach to stopping military homelessness and military suicide. This curriculum teaches military warriors what to know to make a smooth and quick transition to civilian living. The transition preparation curriculum, at present, focuses on resume building, job seeking, and veteran benefits. The classes are a total of 40 hours, and this is a focused time for the military member to begin their preparation for leaving the military. This curriculum has a severe gap, as Dr. Bliven discovered first-hand while experiencing her transition. She found a new language and terminology to use when seeking a civilian job and interviewing with a potential civilian employer. She also discovered several other gaps in education for transition preparedness that hit her in the face and the gut causing her to spiral downward, enter depression, and into a dark place. Many military veterans and warriors who enter the dark place escape the darkness by committing suicide.

Dr. Bliven researched the issue of military suicides and discovered a direct relationship between military homelessness and military suicides. According to a journal article titled: “Addressing Veteran Homelessness to Prevent Veteran Suicides, written by Tsai, Trevison, Huang, and Pietrzak (2018), “Analysis of a nationally representative survey of U.S. veterans in 2015 shows that veterans with a history of homelessness attempted suicide in the previous two years at a rate >5.0 times higher compared with veterans without a history of homelessness (6.9% versus 1.2%), and their rates of two-week suicidal ideation were 2.5 times higher (19.8% versus 7.4%).”

Given that over 30 military suicides per day take place in 2022, the need for a new curriculum teaching military members to be fully prepared to leave the military is paramount to stopping military suicide. Being fully prepared with a plan, purpose, and personal mission is the way to prevent situations that lead to veteran homelessness and veteran suicide.

The new curriculum addresses the gap in educating military members to be fully prepared to leave the military. That new curriculum is being pitched to the Department of Defense within two months. If people are interested to know more about this new curriculum, contact Dr. Bliven via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annamariabliven/.

Aurora DeRose
Boundless Media Inc.
+1 951-870-0099
email us here

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.