Military Kids Cope With Suicide

Military Kids Cope With Suicide
October 14, 2009
Marine Corps News|by Pfc. Daniel Boothe

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Military children from across the country coping with service member suicide found help from the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and Camp Pendleton volunteers in San Diego.

More than 40 children reflected on and coped with feelings of grief alongside 50 active-duty volunteers during TAPS’s three-day event.

“All of the children here have lost someone very important in their lives due to suicide,” said Ami Neiberger-Miller, TAPS’s public affairs officer, who lost her brother in Iraq two years ago. “Our goal is to help these kids develop lifelong coping mechanisms and offer the peer support to overcome this grief.”

Children ages four to 18 found this support from their Pendleton mentors who conducted group discussions and took the kids to San Diego’s USS Midway Museum.

“I wish we could say something to take the pain away, but we can’t,” said Chad T. Weikel, group leader and TAPS mentor trainer who also lost his brother in Iraq. “Offering them this peer-based support, a caring adult mentor and lifelong coping mechanisms are the biggest things we can do for them.”


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/marine-corps-news/military-kids-cope-with-suicide.html

It is one of those big self-deceptions of America that it does and should.