The US Army is developing a new digital command tool to help spot soldiers at risk of suicide

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• The Army is developing and preparing to soon field a new version of its Commander's Risk Reduction Dashboard, a digital tool designed to help leadership identify at-risk soldiers and get them the assistance they need.
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• While CRRD Increment I only focused on 12 risk elements that could be used to determine if a soldier might be at risk of death by suicide, the new version will feature over 40 different risk elements, giving command teams a much clearer picture of their soldiers.
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• The system collects data from many different databases and compiles it into one web-based tool that commanders can use to better understand their soldiers, and not just active-duty personnel but also National Guard and Army Reserve.
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• Increment II has already achieved initial operating capability, but the full capability set is not expected until next year.

The US Army is developing a next-generation web-based tool to help commanders spot soldiers who are at risk for suicide and get them the help they need, officials with the Ready & Resilient (SR2) team revealed in an interview with Business Insider Wednesday.

Development of the Commander's Risk Reduction Dashboard Increment I first began in 2012 in response to "a significant rise in suicides across the Army," Randy Lane, the Assessments Division Chief for SR2, explained.

Army suicides spiked to the highest level that year, and it led Army leadership to investigate the problems. The service found that "commanders and leaders didn't have sufficient visibility on soldier and potentially unit risk," Lane said. "We lacked that. We had a gap in our capability."

The Army fielded Increment I to a portion of the service in 2014 and all active-duty three years later. The original design featured 12 risk elements, giving command teams a clearer but still insufficient view of the soldiers in their charge.

Military suicides in 2018 reached the highest rate since record-keeping began nearly two decades ago, with 325 deaths.

A better way forward for risk assessment

As service suicides continued to be a problem, the Army made the decision to expand the dashboard capability with Increment II, a much more effective system. The Army achieved Initial Operating Capability with Increment II in August of this year.

While initial version of Increment II features 25 risk elements, the full capability set, which is expected to be fielded within the next year, will have over 40 elements, to include not only things like a history of criminal behavior or substance abuse but also medical issues, behavior health, violence, thoughts of or attempts at suicide, and financial issues, among other things.

For the National Guard, which has traditionally had high rates of suicide, and the Army Reserve, the development team has taken into consideration issues like unemployment, underemployment, and homelessness, issues that do not affect active-duty personnel.

The system, Lt. Col. Christian Estrellado, the SR2 Systems Branch Chief, explained, contains a knowledge base for commanders who have at-risk soldiers in their ranks. "This knowledge base consists of the programs that the installation has for the commanders to go ahead and call, use, or whatever else to help their unit," he told Business Insider.

So, the dashboard not only helps command teams spot problems, it helps connect them to the teams that can get soldiers help when they need it.

"We want to identify [at-risk] soldiers and get them the help required," Lane explained.

"The problem we've had in the past is bringing those all together into a composite picture," he added. "Too often, when we conduct review boards after a potential soldier suicide, we look back and say, "Wow, if only we had seen that factor along with that factor along with that factor, it might have painted a picture that was a little clearer to the leadership."

The new Risk Reduction Dashboard pulls from a number of different data sources, such as medical, legal, and personnel sources, and conveniently puts it in one place for command teams.

The Army began experimenting with Increment II a couple of years ago, slowly rolling it out at places like Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Fort Carson, and Fort Benning, where the relevant development team was able to get valuable feedback from users.

"Across the Army, people are our number one priority. We can't achieve readiness, we can't modernize, we can't reform the Army without people. The Army is the people, so taking care of our people is the number one priority," James Helis, the SHARP and SR2 director, told Business Insider.

"That involves building cohesive teams down to the smallest level and having engaged leaders who truly know their soldiers so that when they identify challenges in their soldiers' lives, they can connect them with the resources to overcome those challenges and prevent them from spiraling into crisis."

He added that this isn't a substitute for sitting down with soldiers, but it is a valuable tool that offers commanders a broader picture of soldiers and their units.