American Legion Post 911 in Hoover hosted a suicide prevention training for its community to support the Legion’s national Be the One program.
American Legion Riders Chapter 911 in Hoover, Ala., held its annual SAVE – Suicide Awareness for Veterans Everywhere – ride Sept. 21 in support of National Suicide Prevention Month. In seeing their efforts to save lives, Post 911 followed suit and held its first suicide prevention event in recognition of the Legion’s national program, Be the One.
On Sept. 22, Post 911 invited the community to its free Be the One event at the Hoover Public Library from 1:30-4:30 p.m. The event featured two speakers – Andy Jenkins, executive director of Crosswinds Foundation, who conducted Warrior Hope Training on post-traumatic stress disorder and moral injury; and Cheryl Dodson with the Alabama VA’s Suicide Prevention and Resources Coalition, who presented QPR (question, persuade, refer) suicide prevention training.
“It was just a phenomenal training opportunity,” said Post 911 Adjutant Virginia Branson. “People said, ‘I am so glad I was here.’”
Jenkins, a member of Sons of The American Legion Squadron 911, spoke first and addressed that “we call everything PTSD when in fact it’s not,” Branson said about his presentation. “There's a difference between PTSD, which is reaction to an outside thing and brings about a flight or fight like, for example, Fourth of July fireworks and noise that you react to is PTSD. Moral injury, though, it's an inner thing. It has to do with something you did or did not do that's against your moral standards. And that brings about guilt and shame. He thinks that a lot of PTSD is misdiagnosed because moral injury is not a diagnosis.”
The QPR training by Dodson gave attendees the tools to recognize warning signs of a suicidal crisis and question, persuade and refer someone to help. After the training, “everyone was saying, I feel like I can do this. If I come across someone in crisis or if I do a buddy check and someone seems to be really down, I feel like I can ask, ‘are you thinking about killing yourself?’ Everyone walked away feeling like they had been empowered,” Branson said.
Prior to Dodson speaking, most attendees shared that their biggest hurdle was feeling comfortable to make that ask. “But after her presentation, all of them were saying, ‘I can do this. It's that important.”
A comment on Post 911’s Facebook page confirmed that the event was empowering.
“This was one of the BEST programs I've attended in months... and I've attended a BUNCH of programs.”
For the training, Auxiliary Unit 911 provided baked goods and an information table was filled with great resources. Among many items, the table featured Be the One dog tag key chains with a QR code that directs to betheone.org; Be the One brochures; a recent Post 911 newsletter and brochure that explains what Post 911’s Legion Family does; dog tags with the 988 crisis line; and free gun locks provided by Dodson.
Post 911 does not have a home for its 350 members so its events like this that keeps the post visible in the community.
“We are the only Legion post in Hoover, so we cater to our community,” Branson said. “We want to be visible in the community and the only real way we can do that is by going out there and serving the community.”
Another way Post 911 serves its veteran community and members is through Buddy Checks. A group of post members call and ask, “What can we do for you? Would you like a visit?”
“You can tell after about three minutes of talking to somebody if they're really kind of down,” said Branson, adding that the veteran will then receive a visit from a post member who brings cookies.
As part of its Buddy Checks, Post 911 pays membership dues for its World War II and Korean War veterans. Then a post member visits the aging veteran to deliver their membership card and of course, cookies.
“Somebody just sits and visits with them,” Branson said. “I believe I know of at least one person, and one is important, in the past three years that we've been doing this that we absolutely saved his life with our Buddy Checks. With Buddy Checks, we feel like we are consistently and constantly participating in Be the One.”
- Be the One