Group ("Project Life Force") vs. Individual Suicide Safety Planning RCT (PLF)
Suicide
About this trial
This is an interventional treatment trial for Suicide focused on measuring Suicide, Safety Plan, Group Treatment, Veterans
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
- Discharge from inpatient unit for suicidal ideation or attempts, or placement on the high-risk suicide list maintained by suicide prevention coordinators
- Completion of a safety plan during the past 6 months prior to entry
- Concurrence from the patient's mental health provider for the Veteran to participate in the study and the provider is willing to work with the research team.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Unable to provide informed consent or complete study requirements
- Unable to speak English
- Cognitive difficulties that impair consent capacity
- Unable or unwilling to provide at least one verifiable contact for emergency or tracking purposes
- Unable to attend outpatient group treatment program or tolerate group therapy format
- Active alcohol or opiate dependence requiring medically supervised withdrawal
- Schizophrenia diagnosis
- Participation in another intervention RCT
Sites / Locations
- James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY
- Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Experimental
Active Comparator
Project Life Force
Treatment-As-Usual
A novel, 10-session intervention to enhance currently mandated VA suicide safety planning in a group setting to support its implementation. PLF is a manualized, weekly 90-minute group treatment lasting 10 weeks coinciding with the time frame for enhanced monitoring of Veterans identified as "high-risk". Session content is described in Table 1 (see appendix A). Six of the PLF sessions correspond to a step of the safety plan and teach skills to maximize the use of that particular step of the plan. The use of emotion regulation skills in PLF differs from other DBT interventions in that it focuses primarily on emotion regulation, distraction and developing social support in the specific context of implementing a safety plan. Mindfulness is not covered. PLF is augmented with additional skill modules on physical health management, education pertaining to suicide risk, promoting positive emotion and suicide prevention mobile apps. PLF patients also receive usual care.
The comparison condition will be an assessment-only treatment-as-usual (TAU). Research team will track number of individual mental health appointments, SPC outreach contacts, and usage patterns of safety plans. Veterans in both randomized conditions will be receiving the mandated monitoring, outreach, and involvement of SPC staff and clinical team management that constitutes standard VA care for suicidal individuals.