Columbia University suicide-prevention protocol shared with veterans at SVA National Conference.
The mix of attendees in Dr. Keita Franklin’s suicide-prevention breakout sessions during the 18th Student Veterans of America (SVA) National Conference Friday and Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colo., ranged from those planning careers in mental health to some who had personally considered ending their lives. Almost all of them, by a show of hands, knew someone who died by suicide.
Session participants included grad students, undergrads, faculty members, SVA chapter leaders, formerly homeless veterans, one who had been incarcerated, some who were recently discharged from service and others who had been out for years.
From all the different perspectives, it was clear from both sessions that the learning experience would be a two-way street.
In Saturday’s session of “Strengthening Suicide Prevention for Student Veterans Through the Columbia Protocol,” presented as part of the American Legion’s Be the One training mission with USAA Face the Fight grant support, Dr. Franklin began by asking for participants’ thoughts about why student veterans are at higher risk of suicidal ideation and attempts than others. A flurry of responses filled the air.
“No mentorship.”
“Ostracization.”
“Unstable housing.”
“Finances.”
“Stigma.”
“No hope for the future.”
“Lost sense of meaning and purpose.”
“No faculty experience with the veteran mentality.”
“Tinnitus – it will drive you crazy.”
Dr. Franklin discussed each factor – and more – into an area lacking in hard scientific data. She shared with the group that veterans age 18-34 (college age, for most) have the highest suicide rate among veteran age groups, and 46% of student veterans, according to some samples, reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (although less than half of veteran suicides are connected to a mental health diagnosis); 37% screened positive for depression; and about one-third reported experiencing severe anxiety.
Transition from military structure to campus life can be tough and abrupt, as are the financial challenges of college, but belongingness was a common theme expressed by students and session leader alike.
Dr. Franklin asked, “How do you go from being the first sergeant or the chief nurse to now get in line and read chapter 2. The transition – where do I fit in, and where do I belong? – does come into play. Meaning and purpose. We believe that veterans struggle with that when they leave the military. Is there a bigger meaning and purpose than serving and the work that many of you have already done?”
A long career in this field, primarily with military and veteran communities, has put Dr. Franklin in the company of many who connect mental well-being with their sense of purpose. When she suggests finding something meaningful to do in the local community after serving in the Armed Forces, “Sometimes they will tell me it’s hard. They’ll say, ‘Yeah, I’m coaching soccer, but it’s not the same meaning and purpose that I had.”
A college professor from Denver made the point Saturday that he was one of only two veterans out of 100 on the faculty at his institution. “A lot of veterans don’t feel any connection,” he said. “The number of faculty who are actually veterans is rare. The perception of a lot of professors is that we (veterans) are a threat. One of my points, when we talk suicide rates, is that the only threat is to themselves, not to the teachers. That seems like a major revelation to professors who have had zero contact to the military.”
One student veteran told the group that she finds “that professors have a really hard time with the veteran mentality. I get remarks like, ‘You’re too direct.’ ‘You take over a conversation.’ Our leadership skills, our ability to go in and assess a situation and just problem-solve – anything that we did before in an area of operation or our normal day-to-day, how we have been trained, raised, built – we’re not supposed to do that anymore. So, that transition to the classroom … is very odd. You are now being reprimanded for who you are and what you’ve been trained to do … things you were so proud of. Your qualities, your skills. Don’t do that anymore.”
In both sessions, Dr. Franklin went over the many factors that contribute to higher suicide rates among veterans and the effectiveness of the Columbia University Lighthouse Project protocol used in American Legion Be the One training.
She explained that the treatment landscape has shifted substantially since she started her career in the 1990s, from emphasis on medical facility treatment to a public health model, where suicide prevention can reach people where they are, day in and day out. The approach of “scoop them up and get them into the hospital” led to an unexpected finding. “Those who were admitted to hospitals with suicide risk would leave with the same level of risk or higher. Putting people into inpatient psych care does not have them leave with reduced suicide risk. It’s not intuitive, but it’s true.”
Medical treatment has a place when needed, she explained, but “we also need them to engage in a life worth living, and we need to prevent suicide where veterans work, live and thrive, not just at the hospital.” The public health model takes a broader approach, training all gatekeepers, such as employers and veterans groups.
That’s why the program came to the SVA NatCon. “We’re taking suicide prevention to the streets,” she said. The mission, she explained, is “to really get the veterans service organizations more involved in preventing suicide. The American Legion has been a big champion of that. They have really taken it on. We have deputized a lot of Legionnaires to really get involved.”
The American Legion’s Be the One suicide-prevention training program with Columbia has been completed by more than 20,000 people since its early 2025 launch.
As data vary on the causes and prevalence, Dr. Franklin made some key points about suicidality:
– Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the nation
– Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for veterans under the age of 45
– 73.5% of veteran suicides are by firearm, compared to 54.6% for non-veterans, suggesting space should be kept between ammunition/firing pins and weapons themselves
“The numbers are tragic,” she explained, adding that accurate statistical knowledge has been improving since 2000 yet remains incomplete at best. But the fact remains that for every data point, she said, “Each and every one of them is a person. They are actually people, with family members.”
She told the groups that for every one suicide, 135 others are exposed to it and become at risk. She added that alcohol and substance abuse, relationship issues, isolation and sleep deprivation are all part of a “grab bag” of factors that contribute to veteran suicidality.
She explained that however difficult it might be, those who care about a veteran who may be at risk cannot be afraid to ask, directly, following the Columbia University Lighthouse Project Protocol, a set of six specific questions that detect risk and provide proven steps to help.
The program is soon piloting a train-the-trainer component that Dr. Franklin said will debut through The American Legion’s Be the One mission early this year. “We’re designing so that everyday people can get it. In order to bring it to the streets, we want neighbors and teachers and people who work (with veterans) to know it. Anyone can do it.”