Three suicides for Hill Air Force Base in 2010

HILL AIR FORCE BASE — It's just the third month of 2010, and already, Hill Air Force Base has lost three people to suicide.

Two civilians and one active duty airman killed themselves in January and February at locations off base — a grim beginning to the year for a base that has lost at least 27 people to suicide since 2006.

Most of those suicides have been committed by civilian personnel.

For the most recent year data were available, 2004, Utah's suicide rate was 17.08 per 100,000 people. The average of the suicide rates in Utah between 2000 and 2004 was 15.82 per 100,000 people, according to the Utah Department of Health.

In 2009, the suicide rate at Hill was 40 per 100,000. So far this year, the rate is 15 per 100,000. And it's only March.

"One suicide is too many," said Maj. Gen. Andrew Busch, commander of the Ogden Air Logistics Center, which encompasses four of the base's wings. "That's the attitude we take."

Busch said the base began implementing programs to focus on employee wellness and morale about four years ago. After partnering with Air Force headquarters, the base has begun to take further steps, Busch said.

The base recently hired a full-time psychologist to join the base's occupational medicine staff, Busch said.

And it has ramped up its wellness advocates who can suggest productive courses of action.

When the wellness advocates began making rounds in 2007, there were just a handful of them. By mid-2009 there were eight. Now, there are 13 advocates who can be the commander's eyes and ears when it comes to wellness.

More than 2,800 employees have visited with wellness advocates since the program began, Busch said.

Co-workers are urged to be wingman advocates — a friend at work or a listening ear.

But base officials know that once someone has decided on suicide, it is a difficult decision to change.

"It will probably never be possible to determine who deferred a suicide attempt as a result of the wingman advocates," Busch said.

Problems in relationships, finances, drug use, medical or emotional problems can be factors that lead to suicide.

And Busch has heard complaints about favoritism, a good-old boys' club, low morale and a lack of employee support that contribute to low morale.