Crisis response planning rapidly reduces suicidal ideation among U.S. military veterans receiving massed cognitive processing therapy for PTSD

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among U.S. military veterans and is associated with increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Crisis response planning (CRP), a brief safety planning-type intervention, has been shown to rapidly reduce suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in emergency and acute care settings. CRP’s effectiveness when combined with trauma-focused therapies remains unknown. In this […]

Frequent callers to crisis helplines: Who are they and why do they call?

Objective: Frequent callers present a challenge for crisis helplines, which strive to achieve optimal outcomes for all callers within finite resources. This study aimed to describe frequent callers to Lifeline (the largest crisis helpline in Australia) and compare them with non-frequent callers, with a view to furthering knowledge about models of service delivery that might meet […]

“I called when I was at my lowest”: Australian men’s experiences of crisis helplines

Background: Helplines are an accessible form of support for people struggling with difficulties in their lives and are key services in suicide prevention and intervention. Men’s experiences of telephone helplines are not well understood, despite high male suicide rates. Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey with N = 684 Australian men (aged 17-83 years, M = 50.13) using […]

Do crisis details differentiate suicide-related 911 call outcomes?

Background: The outcomes of calling 911 for suicide crises remain largely unexplored. Aims: To investigate how characteristics of individuals in a suicidal crisis (e.g., age, gender identity, help-seeking source, means, disclosure of historical suicidality, or self-harm) may differentiate outcomes when contacting 911. Method: The authors analyzed 1,073 Washington State Police 911 call logs, coding for […]

A distress-processing model for clients in suicidal crisis: Development and initial validation

Background: While crisis intervention frameworks have indicated the importance of clients in suicidal crisis better understanding their distress to decrease suicidality, it is unclear how clients in suicidal crisis process their distress. Aims: To develop (Study 1) and validate (Study 2) a sequential distress-processing model for clients in suicidal crisis. Methods: Applying task analysis, Study 1 consisted of three phases, […]

Factors influencing emergency department staff decision-making for people attending in suicidal crisis: A systematic review

Background: Emergency department (ED) staff are often the first point of contact for individuals in suicidal crisis. Despite this, there is no published research systematically examining the factors influencing decision-making for this patient group. Methods: MedLine, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases were searched for three key concepts: (1) suicide, (2) accident and emergency […]

Novel telehealth adaptations for evidence-based outpatient suicide treatment: Feasibility and effectiveness of the Crisis Care Program

Background: Suicide rates in the United States have escalated dramatically over the past 20 years and remain a leading cause of death. Access to evidenced-based care is limited, and telehealth is well-positioned to offer novel care solutions. The Crisis Care program is a suicide-specific treatment program delivered within a national outpatient telehealth setting using a digitally […]

Striking a balance: Triage and crisis intervention models within the pediatric emergency room

Upwards of 500,000 pediatric patients visit emergency rooms (ER) annually for psychiatric crises (1), with rates recently increasing (2, 3), necessitating an examination of ER treatment approaches, including triage and crisis interventions. Nurses and pediatricians without specialized psychiatric training often apply a triage approach to such youth’s care (4–8), rapidly admitting or discharging them depending on […]

The lifeline and advanced practice nursing/intervention prevention perspective

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (hereinafter referred to as The Lifeline) is a national effort to provide mental health crisis support for individuals or 3rd parties (requesting help for others) via a three-digit phone number. Since July 2022, the Lifeline is part of a national effort to assist individuals who are suicidal, homicidal, or […]

Use, potential use, and awareness of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by level of psychological distress

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was launched nationally on July 16, 2022. Increases in call volume following the launch of 988 hotline1 and public awareness2 and policy maker communication3 about the 988 Lifeline have  been documented. However, little is known about how use or awareness of the 988 Lifeline varies across populations with different […]

Remote crisis intervention and suicide risk management in COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers

Introduction: Despite the propagation of virtual mental health services for vulnerable groups during COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation and evaluation of remote evidence-based practices (EBP) to manage them in low- and middle-income countries remains scarce. In the current study, we describe and evaluate the implementation process and clinical impact of brief, remote, manualized EBP for crisis intervention […]

Police negotiators and suicide crisis situations: A mixed-methods examination of incident details, characteristics of individuals and precipitating factors

Police negotiators provide leadership and expertise in the de-escalation and resolution of critical incidents, including responding to individuals exhibiting suicidal behaviour. This study describes the frequency and characteristics of suicide-related negotiation incidents in Queensland, Australia as classified in the Queensland Police Service Negotiator Deployment Database, between 2012 and 2014. Incidents were analysed to understand the […]

Mental Health First Aid crisis role-plays between pharmacists and simulated patients with lived experience: A thematic analysis of debrief

Purpose Healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, can recognise and assist people experiencing mental health crises. Despite this, little is known about how pharmacists assist and engage with people presenting with signs and symptoms of mental health crises. This study aimed to (i) examine pharmacists’ mental health crisis assessment language during simulated patient role-plays (SPRPs) and (ii) […]

Development, pilot implementation, and short-term outcome of an outpatient psychiatric crisis intervention service for patients with suicide risk

Background: In many developing countries, most patients referred for hospitalization for high suicide risk are deprived of adequate care, mainly because of limited psychiatric facilities. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the short-term outcomes of an outpatient psychiatric crisis intervention (PCI) service enhanced with case management for patients with suicide risk where hospital admission was impossible […]

Providing crisis care in a pandemic: A virtual based crisis stabilization unit

Background: Winnipeg, Canada operates a 16-bed subacute unit, the Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU), for voluntary patients in crisis not requiring hospital admission. The virtual CSU (vCSU) launched in March 2020 as an adjunct to the in-person CSU during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing the same resources virtually, allowing patients to remain at home. Methods: Program data […]

Suicide intervention practices: What is being used by mental health clinicians and mental health allies?

Objective: Implementation of evidence-based suicide prevention is critical to prevent death by suicide. Contrary to previously held beliefs, interventions including contracting for safety, no-harm contracts, and no-suicide contracts are not best practices and are considered contraindicated. Little is known about the current use of best practices and contraindicated interventions for suicide prevention in community settings. Methods: Data […]

Measuring associations of the department of Veterans Affairs’ suicide prevention campaign on the use of crisis support services

Campaigns have become popular in public health approaches to suicide prevention; however, limited empirical investigation of their impact on behavior has been conducted. To address this gap, utilization patterns of crisis support services associated with the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) suicide prevention campaign were examined. Daily call data for the National […]

Reasons to love life: Effects of a suicide-awareness campaign on the utilization of a telephone emergency line in Austria

Background: A suicide awareness campaign was initiated in the Austrian federal state of Styria to increase help-seeking behavior in the population. Billboards were shown throughout Styria depicting joyful everyday-life situations with a focus on social and family connectedness, and promoting the Telephone Emergency Service, a crisis hotline. Aims: The present study investigated the impact of this campaign […]

The emergency telephone conversation in the context of the older person in suicidal crisis: a qualitative study

Background: Suicide in older people is a significant public health issue with a predicted future increase. Contemporary research directs considerable attention toward physical, mental, and social risk factors that contribute to suicidality in older people; still, little is understood about the fundamental meanings that older people in suicidal crisis attribute to these factors. Aims: The aim of […]

Suicidality assessment with PRISM-S Simple, fast, and visual: A brief nonverbal method to assess suicidality in adolescent and adult patients

Background: The PRISM-S task was developed at the Crisis Intervention Center (KIZ) Winterthur, Switzerland, to enable an assessment of the degree of suicidality in less than 5 minutes with a simple, visual instrument. Aims: Comparison of validity and clinical use of the new PRISM-S task with other instruments known as “gold standards”. Method: Quantitative pilot study enlisting 100 […]

Family treatments for individuals at risk for suicide: A PRISMA scoping review

Background: This PRISMA scoping review explored worldwide research on family-based treatments for suicide prevention. Research on this topic highlights the importance of facilitating familial understanding of a suicidal individual. Aim: The review sought evidence of outcomes of trials in which both the patient and family member in the intervention arm attended the same sessions at which suicide was […]

Real-time mental health crisis response in the United States to COVID-19: Insights from a national text-based platform

Background: Data are scarce on assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people. Aim: To examine changes in crisis text patterns in the United States during the pandemic compared to the prepandemic period. Method: Nonintrusive data from a national digital crisis texting platform were analyzed using an interrupted time series design. Poisson regression with repeated-measures examined help-seeking patterns […]

The changing landscape of mental health crisis response in the United States

Models of community mental health crisis response have multiplied in the last few decades, yet an estimated one quarter to half of all fatal police encounters continue to be mental health related. Persons with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely than other civilians to be killed when encountering law enforcement. Being African American […]