Citation

Labouliere CD, Stanley B, Lake AM, Gould MS. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sltb.12554

PMID

31112330

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The role of crisis hotlines traditionally was limited to de-escalation and service linkage. However, hotlines are increasingly recruited to provide outreach and follow-up to suicidal individuals. Hotlines have the opportunity to not just defuse current crises but also provide brief interventions to mitigate future risk. The Safety Planning Intervention (SPI) is a brief intervention designed to help manage suicidal crises, but its feasibility and effectiveness on hotlines are not established. AIMS: This study examined feasibility and perceived effectiveness of SPI, as reported by 271 crisis counselors at five centers in the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network.

METHOD: Counselors were trained to use SPI. Self-report surveys were completed immediately after training (time 1) and at the end of the study, approximately 9 months later (time 2).

RESULTS: Counselors reported that SPI was feasible and helpful, and was used on both incoming and follow-up calls. Utilization and perceived effectiveness at time 2 were predicted by self-efficacy, feasibility, and helpfulness at time 1. LIMITATIONS: Results are preliminary and limited to counselors' perceptions. Future RCTs should establish efficacy of SPI for crisis callers.

CONCLUSION: The Safety Planning Intervention is a promising approach to reduce crisis callers' future suicide risk that hotline counselors report is both feasible and helpful.

© 2019 The American Association of Suicidology.

Language: en