Participatory Research for Suicide Prevention in Autism

Utah System of Higher Education (USHE)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Suicide Prevention; Autism

Treatments: Behavioral: Forming Love around Autistic People to Prevent Suicide

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06552871

K23MH123934 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

00139671

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this study is to pilot test a new educational intervention for organization members focused on suicide prevention for autistic people. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Does participating in the intervention increase participants' knowledge, skills, and actions to support suicide prevention for autistic people?
• What feedback do participants have to help improve the intervention?

Participants will:

• engage in a four-part virtual educational intervention
• answer questions via online survey before, after, and 3-months after the intervention
• participate in an optional interview to provide feedback

Full description

This study will pilot test a new four-part virtual educational intervention called Forming Love around Autistic People to Prevent Suicide (FLAPS).

Participants will be active members of an organization (e.g., paid employee, volunteer, stakeholder) whose work impacts autistic people. They will participate in four virtual educational sessions led by trained facilitators.

The educational intervention will provide current research evidence and community-informed information about suicide risk and prevention, and engage participants in active discussions to expand their knowledge and skills as well as to promote action planning to support suicide prevention for autistic people in their community.

Participants will provide demographic and descriptive information and complete the Steps Toward Prevention (Autism Community Suicide Prevention) measure at three time-points (Pre-intervention, post-intervention [approximately 2 months after baseline], and 3-months after intervention). The Steps Toward Prevention (Autism Community Suicide Prevention) measure will assess participants' knowledge, skills, and actions to support suicide prevention for autistic people. They will also be provided an option to complete a short interview to provide feedback about the FLAPS intervention.

Enrollment: 51 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Active member of an organization whose work impacts autistic people
• Age 18+
• Fluent English language to participate in virtual educational intervention

Exclusion criteria

• No access to an internet-connected device
• Unable to participate in a virtual educational intervention

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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51 participants in 1 patient group

FLAPS intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Participants receiving FLAPS intervention

Treatment:

Behavioral: Forming Love around Autistic People to Prevent Suicide