Facebook announced on Wednesday a new partnership with Blue Star Families and the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand its current suicide prevention services to include customized services for veterans, active duty military service members and their families.
Now there is a customized solution available on Facebook that helps identify military family and personnel and allows friends and families to report content that may be harmful or suicidal on their pages.
Those who report the content will also receive information about crisis services offered to the military, including The Veterans Crisis Line, which is part of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
New data from Blue Star Families survey shows why this partnership effort is so important. Over 90 percent of respondents reported using some form of social media, of which 86 percent of military families say they use Facebook daily.
However, an alarming amount of both military family members and service members have considered suicide, at 10 percent and 9 percent respectively, according to numbers from Blue Star Families.
Facebook had already provided suicide prevention measures in the past through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, but did not have the customized services that are now available to military families, personnel, and veterans.
