A Navy Command Tries Radical Transparency to Help Prevent the Next Suicide

[Tony]

As the Navy continues to struggle with suicide and getting its sailors to seek help from mental health services, some commands are turning to new, unconventional tools.

At Naval Station Mayport, Florida, a commander didn't want his unit -- a regional maintenance center very similar to the one in Norfolk, Virginia, that recently experienced a string of suicides -- to become the next headline. What resulted was a proactive forum built on transparency that reportedly got rave reviews from sailors and may have sparked a trend at the small base.