Written vs Electronic Safety Planning Study

University of Arkansas

Status: Completed

Conditions: Suicide Attempt; Suicidal Ideation; Mental Health

Treatments: Other: Safety Net App

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04026308

239731

Details and patient eligibility

About

Safety planning is a brief, ED-feasible intervention which has been demonstrated to save lives and has been universally recommended by every recent expert consensus panel on suicide prevention strategies. In one popular version of the safety plan developed by Stanley et al, the patient is encouraged to write out the following items: identifying personal signs of a crisis; helpful internal coping strategies; social contacts or settings which may distract from a crisis; using family members or friends for help when in crisis; mental health professionals who can be contacted when in crisis; and restricting access to lethal means.

This study aims to find out how valuable an electronic safety plan is compared to a traditional paper safety plan. People who are visiting the emergency department for thoughts of self-harm will be asked to participate.

Full description

This project has 3 aims: (1) Will ED patients with suicidal ideation/attempt accept coaching on safety planning from non-clinical personnel (i.e., medical students or peer supporters); (2) Are these safety plans of high-enough quality for clinical personnel; and finally, (3) Will ED patients with suicidal ideation/attempt complete safety plans electronically?

Enrollment: 30 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 89 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patients presenting for suicidal ideation (SI) or after a suicide attempt to the UAMS ED
• Willingness to engage in safety planning with trained non-clinical staff
• Have not already filled out a safety plan at the current visit

Exclusion criteria

• <18 or >89 years of age
• Incarcerated or in police custody
• Non-English-speaking or Non-English-writing (as translators will not be available for this study)
• Critically-ill (or appear to be critically-ill)
• Intoxicated with alcohol or other substance(s)
• ED staff objection to patient enrollment in study
• Unwilling or unable to complete the safety plan electronically
• Unwilling or unable to use a tablet device to complete the safety plan
• Unwilling or unable to show/email the safety plan to clinical and research staff

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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30 participants in 2 patient groups

Written Safety Plan

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants will complete a traditional written suicide safety plan.

Electronic Safety Plan

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will complete a suicide safety plan in the Safety Net app using a tablet.

Treatment:

Other: Safety Net App