DCAF and CCDS organized a two-day workshop for the staff of the Georgian Defence Ministry on 30-31 March 2022 in Tbilisi. The topic of the workshop was Suicide and Suicide Prevention in the Armed Forces: Best Practices and Lessons Learnt from Drafting and Implementing Suicide Prevention Strategies for the Armed Forces. The workshop, which brought together experts in defence and security areas from different countries, broadly focused on the findings of the Policy Paper ‘Suicide and Suicide Prevention Strategies in the Armed Forces: Key Elements and Best Practices’.

The invited speaker Prof. Eric Vermetten presented Best Practices in Drafting and Implementing Suicide Prevention Programmes for the Armed Forces from NATO Member States. This was followed by the presentation ‘Needs and Challenges’ by Nita Tchabashvili of the Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Department at the MoD. CCDS board member Shorena Lortkipanidze briefly presented the findings of the baseline study on mental health and suicidal-behaviour in the Georgian Defence Forces. Further presentations included Julia Grumet’s discussion about Comprehensive suicide prevention programmes: Lessons learnt from the US Air Force Suicide Prevention Program (AFSPP) and Kristen Vescera’s talk about lessons learnt from suicide prevention in the special forces.

On the second day of the workshop, Prof. Vermetten spoke about stigma, disclosure and help-seeking in the army. The presentation was followed by an interactive discussion on legal and institutional challenges to mental health treatment in the Georgian Defence Forces. Short discussions were also made on various topics, such as barriers to help-seeking, policies and protocols for addressing suicidal behaviour in the Armed Forces and the process of drafting, adopting and implementing the Suicide Prevention Strategy for the Georgian Defence Forces.

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