<p>Pedro,</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you meant by these “seminars” being intended to make our services weaker…they do quite the opposite in fact. I know from personal experience here that they are helpful in making people aware of signs of impending suicide, knowing what procedures are for reporting them, or for seeking help, etc. For instance, if I had never been to a suicide prevention briefing, I probably would have never known what the different avenues of seeking help were, that there are some officials within the military that either have an obligation to report or are not restricted from reporting what they are told by servicemembers, and that there are others who are held in confidentiality.</p>
<p>Being more sensitized to the needs of one’s unit members does not make the system weaker by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, a platoon that knows its PL will be there for them when they need help, will do everything in his/her power to keep morale high and unit cohesion strong; is a platoon that will trust their leader to the fullest and probably be more likely to follow that person under tougher circumstances than a leader who neglects these things.</p>