Suicide Prevention Program for Veterans Discharged From Community Care Settings

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

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.

Inclusion Criteria:

• The patient was recently discharged from a VA community care mental health treatment setting
• The patient is at risk for self-harm
• Be a patient connected to the White River Junction VA Medical Center (VAMC), the Togus VA Medical Center (VAMC), or the Manchester VA Medical Center (VAMC);
• Be a Veteran;
• Be 18 years or older;
• Be able to speak English;

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unable to provide informed consent;
• The investigators do not plan to enroll any potentially vulnerable populations including prisoners, institutionalized patients, or involuntarily committed patients;
• Study physician deems the patient not clinically appropriate