NCT04784663

Public Messaging to Increase Treatment Seeking for Veterans at Risk for Suicide

Public Messaging to Increase Treatment Seeking Among Veterans at Risk for Suicide During Transition From Military Service

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 355 (actual)
• Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development · Federal
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 89 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The risk for suicide increases by nearly 50% in the first year that service members transition from the military to civilian life underscoring the need for effective strategies to facilitate help seeking among Veterans vulnerable to self-directed violence. Yet despite a great need for treatment, more than half of returning Veterans at risk for suicide do not initiate mental health services. VA has embarked on the regular use of communication campaigns as part of a public health approach designed to reach the larger Veteran population with messages promoting help seeking. However, what types of messages effectively change beliefs and behaviors for at-risk Veterans resistant to seek treatment is unclear. The main objective of this study is to develop and test the use of public messaging to increase treatment seeking among Veterans at risk for suicide and resistant to seek mental health care following separation from military service. This represents the first study to systematically develop public messaging strategies for populations at risk for suicide.

Detailed description

The main objective of this study is to develop and test the use of public messaging to increase treatment seeking among Veterans at risk for suicide and resistant to seek mental health care following separation from military service. A four-year mixed methods study that uses a sequential embedded design will be used to collect data from nationwide samples of Veterans at risk for suicide not in mental health treatment who separated from the DoD in the past year. Informed by the Theory of Planned Behavior, individual interviews will first be conducted to guide the design of effective public messages that will be subsequently tested in a two-arm RCT to determine exposure effects among targeted audience vs. control group. Messages will be disseminated to study participants during the trial by a smartphone app. Research staff will collect assessments by telephone at baseline, 1- and 3-months post-randomization. Potential participants (for all study aims) will be identified using data available from the VA/DOD Identity Repository (VADIR) and recruited by invitational mailing and follow-up telephone calls. If the intervention is found effective, the investigators will work with the VA operational partner to include messages in future outreach approaches to prevent Veteran suicide and use findings to improve current communication performance measures.

Conditions

• Mental Health
• Suicide

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Messaging	Four brief video messages, each approximately 1.5 minutes in length, focused on facilitating treatment seeking by addressing barriers and improving attitudes. Intervention delivered to participant by study mobile app downloaded to participants' own smartphone.
OTHER	Wait list control	one push notification each week thanking individuals for participation, informing them that they will receive messages in the near future or reminding them of the length of the study.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-11-01
• Primary completion: 2025-06-30
• Completion: 2025-09-30
• First posted: 2021-03-05
• Last updated: 2025-10-14

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States