Smartphone App Enhanced Facilitation Among Veterans in a Mental Health Inpatient Setting (Project HOPE)

ConditionsSuicide Prevention Suicide Attempt Suicide Ideation

Trial statusRecruiting

Trial phaseNot applicable

Trial typeInterventional

Biological sexAll

Age18+

SponsorVA Office of Research and Development

About this trial

This study will test whether a novel intervention, Virtual Hope Box Enhanced Facilitation (VHB-EF), reduces suicide risk in Veterans after discharge from inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. Additionally, this study will also conduct interviews with Veterans and healthcare providers to explore barriers and facilitators to future adoption of the VHB-EF intervention in healthcare settings.

Eligibility criteria

This trial does not accept healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

1) Veterans aged 18 or older

2) admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit for a recent suicidal crisis

3) medically stable (the patient's medical and psychological fitness [including aggression] to provide informed consent will be determined by a member of the patient's treatment team)

4) A score of 3 or greater on the Callahan 6-item cognitive screening.

Disqualifiers

1) do not understand English

2) are prisoners

3) are unable to provide informed consent

4) have profound psychotic symptoms and/or cognitive deficits that would prevent patients from understanding the content of the intervention and/or assessments

Trial design

Design model

Parallel

Treatments tested in this trial

Virtual Hope Box Enhanced Facilitation
Behavioral
The VHB-EF intervention has two phases: (1) The in-person inpatient phase involves a single, one-on-one, 60-minute session delivered by the study interventionist prior to hospital discharge. During this session, the interventionist will obtain access to the participant's personal phone and assist them in downloading the VHB app. The interventionist will provide education about the app and personalized behavioral practice for each component of the app. They will also address strategies to enhance app use. In addition, participants will receive a list of Veteran mental health resources, community services, Veteran service organizations, and other Veteran social support services available to Veterans in the area. (2) The remote-delivery phase builds on the work begun in the hospital via 2 follow-up phone contacts within 14 days following discharge, during which the study interventionist will monitor risk, review/revise VHB content, and support app use and outpatient treatment engagement.
Enhanced Usual Care
Behavioral
The EUC condition will involve a one-on-one, 30-minute session delivered prior to hospital discharge, during which the study interventionist will review a list of Veteran mental health resources, community services, Veteran service organizations, and other Veteran social support services available to Veterans in the area. The EUC session will remain focused only on reviewing the standardized list of Veteran and community services; no counseling will be provided, and the list provided by the study interventionist does not include non-services (i.e., does not list any smartphone applications, including the VHB app).

Treatment groups

928 Participants

are divided into 2 treatment groups

Group A: Virtual Hope Box Enhanced Facilitation (VHB-EF)Experimental treatment 1 intervention

Group B: Enhanced Usual Care (EUC)Active comparator 1 intervention

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

6 month Suicide Behaviors (measured by the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale [C-SSRS])

Suicide behaviors will be measured by the C-SSRS and will be administered as a semi-structured interview. The definition of suicide behaviors for the primary outcome will consist of any actual suicide attempt or interrupted suicide attempt or aborted suicide attempt during the specified time period.

Time frame

6 months

Secondary outcomes

6 month Suicidal ideation (measured by the Scale for Suicidal Ideation [SSI]-Worst Point)

Worst-point severity of suicidal ideation will be measured by the Scale for Suicidal Ideation (SSI) interview. The total score (sum of the first 19 items) will be used. Scores range from 0 to 38. Increasing scores reflect greater suicide risk.

Time frame

6 months

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

VA Office of Research and Development

Lead sponsor

Source ClinicalTrials.gov

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