Suicide prevention efforts at Fort Hood lack ‘professional expertise,’ Army says

Editor’s note: This report contains discussion of suicide. Troops, veterans and family members experiencing suicidal thoughts can call the 24-hour Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 and dial 1, text 838255 or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net.

After years of internal suicide prevention efforts at Fort Hood, the U.S. Army is putting out a call for assistance.

The III Armored Corps, based at the Texas installation, has submitted a request for a mental health contractor to strengthen the base’s suicide prevention program through new training, counseling and support for the community following a loss.

“Existing organic resources do not provide the specialized professional expertise in suicide prevention systems assessment and evidence-based intervention,” according to the Army’s Aug. 31 Sources Sought notice. The service listed a response deadline of Sept. 3.

Like other military bases, Fort Hood has a website listing various contacts soldiers can call for assistance. However, “the Fort Hood Suicide Prevention Office is not a crisis center and does not provide counseling services,” the website warned. Instead, soldiers and their families are instructed to call 998, the FCC-designated number for the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

The installation, however, needs more help, according to the notice. At around 340 square miles and home to approximately 40,000 soldiers, it is one of the Army’s largest installations and active-duty armored posts.

Yet the base has also been the epicenter of a stream of suicides that have plagued the Army’s armored force.

“Between 2019 and 2021, tank brigades experienced a suicide rate twice as high as the rest of the active-duty force,” with at least 79 soldiers taking their own lives, according to a 2024 Army Times investigation.

Fort Hood has also seen a series of notorious cases since 2009, including a mass shooting by an Army psychiatrist in 2009, the murder of a female soldier in 2020, and the suicide of another in 2023.

The Army’s Sources Sought notice admits that “Fort Hood operates under a high tempo operational cycle that includes Combat Training Center rotations, deployments, and redeployment phases.”

“Persistent mental health challenges and acute crises directly affect unit readiness and force preservation,” the notice adds.

As part of the new effort, the service is seeking a contractor who can audit III Armored Corps’ suicide prevention program, identify gaps and deliver “actionable, evidence-based recommendations.”

The goal of the effort is to continue to encourage soldiers to seek help, while making it easier for personnel to navigate the system, without fear or shame, when they do choose to seek assistance.

The notice details a variety of contractor activities, including conducting a review of how service weapons are secured in barracks and how personal firearms are stored off-base. The selected contractor will also be asked to conduct a minimum of three focus groups — with officers, NCOs, enlisted personnel and family members — to discuss mental health.

The notice requests that special training sessions be conducted to educate leaders at the battalion level and above on suicide prevention strategies. There should also be mental health workshops for all personnel and their families, the notice states.

The contractor should also provide advice on incorporating mental health awareness into soldier orientation programs, according to the notice, and encourage a “culture of help-seeking and early intervention” while developing “discrete, confidential pathways to care for Soldiers and leaders.”

The new program, meanwhile, does not call for the contractor itself to provide counseling services. Instead, the contractor will be expected to conduct up to two eight-hour “clinical assessment and treatment training sessions for Fort Hood clinicians.”