A suicide expert hired by U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently reported that the agency's high number of suicides most likely is triggered by family or relationship issues rather than work problems.
"They do talk about the border conditions decreasing their morale, but in no way is that the cause of suicide," Dr. Kent Corso, who joined CBP in 2021 as the program manager for suicide prevention, told the Washington Examiner. "If it were, I think we'd see many more triggers being work-related instead of triggers being family-related or relationship-related."
Corso noted that three Border Patrol agents recently committed suicide within 15 days of one another and the agency determined that relationship problems were the main trigger in each case.
"What I can share without violating privacy is that of the most recent suicides, they were related to relationship problems," he said.
Corso said that other factors include substance abuse issues, mental health and depression, a history of discipline, and work stress.
"We're taking a scientific approach to this, and one of the things that we're recognizing as far as patterns is we have a higher incidence of suicide among supervisors," he said. "And so we're trying to figure out what is it about being a supervisor that is potentially related to this."
Corso said that "the name of the game is making it OK to seek help — educating people that we're not just going to fire them. They're not just going to, you know, be hauled off, that we're going to slow things down because that's what we have to do in these circumstances is slow things down and just support the people.
"We are trying to de-stigmatize seeking help for anything, from financial problems to substance problems to relationship problems to stress."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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