Sunday, November 2, 2014

Suicide Attempts and Taking the Win

This past week, I had my first suicidal ideation as a chaplain.

Without giving too much detail, the Marine barricaded himself in his bathroom, armed. 

A few hours later, he was escorted out, in custody with no injuries and no shots fired. 

It took me all day to process what I was a part of.
As an EMT, my job was to wait until I was called. 

During the Incident, my job WAS to f Ocus on the family and Support Them, even WHEN I knew nothing That WAS going on. Simply Being Present, WHEN there WAS nothing to say. Holding the Spouses hand, as she WAS Questioned by NCIS, or finding people to take care her children. 

After all is said and done, he is safe and getting the care he needs and the family will being to pick up the pieces from this and I will be there - as much or as little as they need me to be.

At the end of the day, as a mentor of mine said when putting all of this into a context I could understand, you take this as a win. Because there are going to be times when you do everything right, and you will lose.

Take the win, get some sleep and start the next day fresh.

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