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MADISON TOWNSHIP — Jennifer Prince was working as a U.S. Navy-contracted dental hygienist when she noticed her patient that day had other needs — needs that transcended oral health.
“She was having a very bad mental health day. I took time and just talked to her and tried to help her,” the 1998 Madison High School graduate said.
“It was then I knew I wanted to work with people in emotional pain and help them work through it,” she said.
That moment of pain for the sailor helped launch a new mental health career for Prince — an effort that is likely helping save the lives of today’s service men and women.
It propelled her into additional studies, taking classes in the evenings and weekends to get a master’s degree and then a doctorate in counseling psychology.
It was professional training for what she intuitively knew how to do in the dental office that day — help people in need.
Prince, who joined the Navy after high school and served 12 years on active duty, has organized and implemented a suicide prevention program liaison training for the 416th Theater Engineer Command at the Parkhurst Army Reserve Center in Chicago.
Born Jennifer Jamieson, she married another active duty sailor in 1992, Terry Prince, who retired in 2017 after 31 years, finishing his military career as the 14th director of the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps and Force Master Chief of Navy Medicine.
As the wife of a sailor, Prince traveled with her husband to many different locations. After his retirement, the future was uncertain until he accepted the position of director of the Illinois Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs in April 2021.
They both quickly felt at home in the Windy City.
“It was a great move. I love it here,” said Prince. “Once we knew we were coming here, this job (suicide prevention program manager with the 416th) was the only job I applied for. They interviewed me and hired me.”
The suicide prevention program she designed and put into place over the last year will assist 10,500 soldiers across a 26-state footprint, as well as other military members across the country.
It’s one of only two such units providing technical and tactical engineer support to U.S. forces.
Led by a two-star general, the 416th maintains mission command and provides full-spectrum engineering services in the supported theater. It includes counter-mobility, mobility, survivability, and general engineering.
Given the recent and tragic rise in suicides and suicidal thoughts among military members, the timing for the week-long training session was perfect.
Essentially, it trains the liaisons to take the training back to their individual commands. These trained eyes and ears will support their own soldiers as needed.
“We have followed ‘best practices’ in setting this up,” Prince said. “I am going to do whatever it takes (to make it work). I have put all my effort into piecing this program together, building it from scratch. Anyone can be trained and go back to their unit and use it.
“If you want to be trained to make a difference and save a life, I am going to train you,” said Prince, a licensed marriage and family therapist who has treated hundreds of people in the areas of mental health, relationships and addiction.
The first session, which included eight facilitators, had 26 students, trained across five different modules. Prince hopes to have 110 to 120 liaisons trained by year’s end.
“The feedback has been they are learning a lot and they’re gaining a new skill set,” Prince said. “They can go back to their commands and teach some of modules and train soldiers in their down-trace units.”
One of the modules is named “Engage,” which is bystander intervention training. It teaches soldiers to be aware of what’s going on around them, make them more aware of emotional intelligence and to be proactive when they see or hear something amiss.
It’s not just important for soldiers who have served overseas and perhaps been involved in combat. It’s just as likely to be Reservists who may interact with their command two days a month and remain isolated in many other ways.
“A lot of our solders haven’t even deployed. But they’re still suffering. The most common soldier to experience suicidal thoughts is a junior enlisted, single, white male. They are isolated and they have access to weapons,” she said.
“We are finding younger people who don’t have a lot of coping skills. The resiliency isn’t there. They don’t have a strong support network. They feel lonely and isolated and that they don’t fit in.
“We have got to slow them down. As a nation, we have not moved the needle on this and it continues to be a massive problem. We think we are making a difference, but we are really not. We have got to do better,” Prince said.
One bright spot is a report Prince received from one of the soldiers who went through the first training session and returned to his unit.
“He told me he has already applied what we taught him. He intervened with a soldier who was suicidal. He helped save that soldier’s life and got him into a hospital where he got the help he needed.
“That makes my heart full.”
