The Use of Voice-Based AI in 988 Crisis Counseling

Lyssn.io

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Suicide and Self-harm; Suicide

Treatments: Other: LyssnCrisis

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Industry; Other

Identifiers

NCT06299384

R44MH133517

Details and patient eligibility

About

Effective training requires repeated opportunities for skills practice with performance-based feedback, which is challenging to provide at scale. This research study focuses on developing an AI-based, coding and feedback tool ("LyssnCrisis") for implementation in a nationally utilized crisis call center, training counselors (call-takers) in suicide risk assessment skills, and evaluating LyssnCrisis to improve services and client outcomes. This research study's goal is to maximize the human capacity of call-takers to help assess their callers for risk of suicidality, and thus, a core aspect of the current research is developing a novel training process that supports human call-taker capacities.

Enrollment: 50 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Must be employed at Protocall Services, Inc.

Exclusion criteria

Call-takers who participated in Stage 2 research will not be able to participate in Stage 3 research.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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50 participants in 2 patient groups

Lyssn Crisis

Experimental group

Description:

To compare LyssnCrisis to SAU, researchers will use a standard randomized design in which call-takers will have services-as-usual (SAU) and LyssnCrisis phases. All call-takers will start with a 4-week baseline period of SAU where LyssnCrisis is operating in the background, but does not provide AI feedback on suicide risk assessment. Lyssn team members will on-board and train the participating call-takers on the Lyssn software (i.e., reviewing calls, sharing and accessing calls for supervision), using a similar method used in the pilot field trial. After a 4-week baseline phase, call-takers will be randomly assigned to continue SAU or begin feedback with LyssnCrisis (LC) for 12 weeks. LC arm participants will have access to LyssnCrisis feedback tools for the duration of the 12 week period and will receive onboarding support for LyssnCrisis fidelity feedback tools.

Treatment:

Other: LyssnCrisis

Services As Usual

No Intervention group

Description:

To compare LyssnCrisis to SAU, researchers will use a standard randomized design in which call-takers will have services-as-usual (SAU) and LyssnCrisis phases. All call-takers will start with a 4-week baseline period of SAU where LyssnCrisis is operating in the background, but does not provide AI feedback on suicide risk assessment. Lyssn team members will on-board and train the participating call-takers on the Lyssn software (i.e., reviewing calls, sharing and accessing calls for supervision), using a similar method used in the pilot field trial. After a 4-week baseline phase, call-takers will be randomly assigned to continue SAU or begin feedback with LyssnCrisis (LC) for 12 weeks. Participants in the SAU arm will continue services-as-usual for an additional 12-week period,where participants receive ProtoCall's regular supervision and feedback. Following this period (16 total weeks of SAU), SAU arm participants will receive LyssnCrisis for 12 weeks.