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The National Guard Bureau is taking appropriate steps to ensure required suicide prevention training is completed, according to a finding in a new Government Accountability Office report, SUICIDE PREVENTION: DOD Should Improve Monitoring and Assessment of Training.
That sets the National Guard apart from the services as the Pentagon continues to lack a full department-wide picture of suicide-training compliance.
GAO said a Defense Suicide Prevention Office official told auditors the office does not receive training completion data from the military services, limiting its ability to monitor compliance and shape policy with a full picture of the force.
The Army, Navy and Marine Corps do not regularly track the requirement.
NGB officials said they monitor annual suicide prevention training throughout the year, but the training completion data they provided was incomplete and inconsistent. As a result, officials could not fully demonstrate training completion across the Army and Air Guard.
Army Guard officials said the Army’s current system does not consistently capture annual suicide prevention training data, while an alternate database showed completion rates ranging from about 13 percent to 35 percent from fiscal years 2020 through 2024.
Air Guard officials also reported incomplete data reviewed for three of five years, citing a lack of historical recordkeeping procedures and delayed access to the Air Force’s central database. Officials said recent access to that database should improve data availability going forward.
GAO stated that stronger evaluation would improve suicide prevention efforts across the armed forces.
For the Guard, that means not just completing annual training but assessing whether it helps Soldiers and Airmen recognize warning signs, understand risk factors and connect people with help sooner.
Among GAO’s 17 recommendations are steps to require the services to report training completion data to the DSPO, develop formal evaluation plans and more consistently monitor annual training requirements.
The Defense Department agreed with nine recommendations, partially agreed with six and did not agree with two.
GAO said it clarified two of the recommendations but still considers all 17 valid.
The Pentagon’s most recent annual suicide report showed 471 reported suicides across the total force in 2024, down from 531 in 2023. But while active-duty and reserve rates declined, the National Guard suicide rate rose about 13%, underscoring the importance of training accountability, early intervention and access to support.
For years, the Pentagon has struggled to bring down the number of suicides in the ranks. DoD began collecting and reporting quarterly surveillance data on service member suicides in 2018 to help guide prevention efforts.
In 2022, in an effort aimed to improve mental health care access for troops, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the establishment of the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee, which made 127 recommendations for near- and long-term solutions to address suicides in the ranks.
The Pentagon selected 83 of the recommendations from the committee, including efforts tied to training, access to care and force-wide prevention policy.
For the Guard, the GAO report reinforces a central challenge: turning required annual training into measurable prevention results. The issue carries particular weight for Guard members, who often balance military service with civilian jobs, family responsibilities and distance from military installations.
Among the committee’s recommendations were firearm safety measures intended to reduce suicide risk, including waiting periods for the purchase of firearms and ammunition by service members on military property.
—By Michael Metz
