Wingman-Connect Program: A Network-Health Suicide and Depression Prevention Program for Air Force Trainees

Peter Wyman, Ph.D.
University of Rochester School of Medicine

Anthony R. Pisani, Ph.D.
University of Rochester School of Medicine

Bryan Yates, BA
University of Rochester School of Medicine

C. Hendricks Brown, Ph.D.
Northwestern University

ABSTRACT:
Suicide has been a leading manner of death for military members in recent years. In this talk, we will describe a Dept of Defense-funded initiative to develop and test a universal prevention program for Airmen in training. The Wingman-Connect Program applies a network health approach to enhance protective group processes in natural organizational units including cohesion and diffusion of healthy norms among members. We report results from a cluster- randomized clinical trial testing impact on airmen through a 6-month follow-up period.