NCT06139887

Suicide Prevention Program for Veterans Discharged From Community Care Settings

Examining a Strategy to Engage Rural Veteran Patients After Community Care Treatment

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 20 (actual)
• Sponsor: White River Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center · Federal
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The goal of this pilot randomized controlled trial is to test an adapted suicide prevention program (the Building VA Engagement, Self-efficacy, and Social Support To Prevent Suicide or BESST) in rural Veterans discharged from community care mental health treatment settings. The main question it aims to answer is: * Does BESST combined with standard care improve suicide-related outcomes among this population compared to standard care alone? Participants will be assigned by change to a treatment group. Some will receive the BESST intervention combined with standard care, and some will receive standard care alone. All participants will be in this research study for up to three months. Those receiving the BESST intervention will have: * 1 one-hour brief educational session; * Seven follow-up check-ins (\~30 minutes each) All participants will have three assessment interviews where they will be asked about their mental health and treatment received outside of the VA. The investigators will compare participants assigned to the BESST intervention combined with standard care vs participants assigned to standard care alone to see if the BESST intervention improves suicide-related outcomes.

Conditions

• Suicide Prevention

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	BESST	The BESST intervention is a suicide prevention program designed to meet the unique needs of Veterans receiving care from community mental health treatment settings. BESST can be delivered by a trained mental health staff member, such as a mental health nurse, social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist. The intervention consists of two synergistic components that work to support the patient after a mental health-related discharge in community settings: 1) Brief educational session, where the patient receives a one-hour, one-on-one, personalized educational session on suicide prevention; 2) Seven regular contacts after discharge, where the study interventionist who delivered the brief educational visit will contact the patient to monitor the patient's symptoms, assess treatment adherence, review their safety plan, and assist the patient with engaging in care, if needed.
OTHER	Standard Mental Health Care	Patients randomized to the control arm will receive standard mental health care alone. Standard mental health care simply refers to the regular care provided to patients around the time of discharge from community care settings.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-10-01
• Primary completion: 2025-04-17
• Completion: 2025-04-17
• First posted: 2023-11-18
• Last updated: 2025-09-05
• Results posted: 2025-08-22

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States