A Mobile Health Approach for Improving Outcomes in Suicide Prevention (SafePlan)

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Abstract

Background

Suicide is a prominent cause of death worldwide, particularly among young people. It was the second leading cause of death among those aged 15-29 years globally in 2016. Treatment for patients with suicidal thoughts or behaviors often includes face-to-face psychological therapy with a mental health professional. These forms of interventions may involve maintaining and updating paper-based reports or worksheets in between sessions. Mobile technology can offer a way to support the implementation of evidence-based psychological techniques and the acquisition of protective coping skills.

Objective

This study aims to develop a mobile app to facilitate service users’ access to mental health support and safety planning. This process involved eliciting expert input from clinicians who are actively engaged in the provision of mental health care.

Methods

A survey was distributed to targeted health care professionals to determine what features should be prioritized in a new mobile app relating to suicide prevention. On the basis of the survey results, a clinical design group, comprising 6 members with experience in fields such as mobile health (mHealth), clinical psychology, and suicide prevention, was established. This group was supplemented with further input from additional clinicians who provided feedback over three focus group sessions. The sessions were centered on refining existing app components and evaluating new feature requests. This process was iterated through regular feedback until agreement was reached on the overall app design and functionality.

Results

A fully functional mobile app, known as the SafePlan app, was developed and tested with the input of clinicians through an iterative design process. The app’s core function is to provide an interactive safety plan to support users with suicidal thoughts or behaviors as an adjunct to face-to-face therapy. A diary component that facilitates the generalization of skills learned through dialectical behavior therapy was also implemented. Usability testing was carried out on the final prototype by students from a local secondary school, who are representative of the target user population in both age and technology experience. The students were asked to complete a system usability survey (SUS) at the end of this session. The mean overall SUS rating was 71.85 (SD 1.38).

Conclusions

The participatory process involving key stakeholders (clinicians, psychologists, and information technology specialists) has resulted in the creation of an mHealth intervention technology that has the potential to increase accessibility to this type of mental health service for the target population. The app has gone through the initial testing phase, and the relevant recommendations have been implemented, and it is now ready for trialing with both clinicians and their patients.

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Most cited references 32

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Contact With Mental Health and Primary Care Providers Before Suicide: A Review of the Evidence

Jason Luoma, Catherine E. Martin, Jane L Pearson (2002)

Objective This study examined rates of contact with primary care and mental health care professionals by individuals before they died by suicide. Method The authors reviewed 40 studies for which there was information available on rates of health care contact and examined age and gender differences among the subjects. Results Contact with primary care providers in the time leading up to suicide is common. While three of four suicide victims had contact with primary care providers within the year of suicide, approximately one-third of the suicide victims had contact with mental health services. About one in five suicide victims had contact with mental health services within a month before their suicide. On average, 45% of suicide victims had contact with primary care providers within 1 month of suicide. Older adults had higher rates of contact with primary care providers within 1 month of suicide than younger adults. Conclusions While it is not known to what degree contact with mental health care and primary care providers can prevent suicide, the majority of individuals who die by suicide do make contact with primary care providers, particularly older adults. Given that this pattern is consistent with overall health-service-seeking, alternate approaches to suicide-prevention efforts may be needed for those less likely to be seen in primary care or mental health specialty care, specifically young men.

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Comparison of the Safety Planning Intervention With Follow-up vs Usual Care of Suicidal Patients Treated in the Emergency Department

Barbara Stanley, Gregory Brown, Lisa Brenner … (2018)

Question Can a brief suicide prevention intervention reduce suicidal behaviors and improve treatment engagement among patients who present to the emergency department for suicide-related concerns? Findings In this cohort comparison study, patients who visited the emergency department for suicide-related concerns and received the Safety Planning Intervention with structured follow-up telephone contact were half as likely to exhibit suicidal behavior and more than twice as likely to attend mental health treatment during the 6-month follow-up period compared with their counterparts who received usual care following their ED visit. Meaning The Safety Planning Intervention with structured follow-up telephone contact may be an effective brief suicide prevention intervention that can be implemented in emergency departments. Importance Suicidal behavior is a major public health problem in the United States. The suicide rate has steadily increased over the past 2 decades; middle-aged men and military veterans are at particularly high risk. There is a dearth of empirically supported brief intervention strategies to address this problem in health care settings generally and particularly in emergency departments (EDs), where many suicidal patients present for care. Objective To determine whether the Safety Planning Intervention (SPI), administered in EDs with follow-up contact for suicidal patients, was associated with reduced suicidal behavior and improved outpatient treatment engagement in the 6 months following discharge, an established high-risk period. Design, Setting, and Participants Cohort comparison design with 6-month follow-up at 9 EDs (5 intervention sites and 4 control sites) in Veterans Health Administration hospital EDs. Patients were eligible for the study if they were 18 years or older, had an ED visit for a suicide-related concern, had inpatient hospitalization not clinically indicated, and were able to read English. Data were collected between 2010 and 2015; data were analyzed between 2016 and 2018. Interventions The intervention combines SPI and telephone follow-up. The SPI was defined as a brief clinical intervention that combined evidence-based strategies to reduce suicidal behavior through a prioritized list of coping skills and strategies. In telephone follow-up, patients were contacted at least 2 times to monitor suicide risk, review and revise the SPI, and support treatment engagement. Main Outcomes and Measures Suicidal behavior and behavioral health outpatient services extracted from medical records for 6 months following ED discharge. Results Of the 1640 total patients, 1186 were in the intervention group and 454 were in the comparison group. Patients in the intervention group had a mean (SD) age of 47.15 (14.89) years and 88.5% were men (n = 1050); patients in the comparison group had a mean (SD) age of 49.38 (14.47) years and 88.1% were men (n = 400). Patients in the SPI+ condition were less likely to engage in suicidal behavior (n = 36 of 1186; 3.03%) than those receiving usual care (n = 24 of 454; 5.29%) during the 6-month follow-up period. The SPI+ was associated with 45% fewer suicidal behaviors, approximately halving the odds of suicidal behavior over 6 months (odds ratio, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.33-0.95, P = .03). Intervention patients had more than double the odds of attending at least 1 outpatient mental health visit (odds ratio, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.57-2.71; P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance This large-scale cohort comparison study found that SPI+ was associated with a reduction in suicidal behavior and increased treatment engagement among suicidal patients following ED discharge and may be a valuable clinical tool in health care settings. This study examines whether a safety planning intervention, administered in emergency departments with follow-up contact for suicidal patients, was associated with subsequent suicidal behavior and outpatient treatment engagement in the 6 months following discharge.

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Smartphone Ownership and Interest in Mobile Applications to Monitor Symptoms of Mental Health Conditions

John Torous, Rohn Friedman, Matcheri Keshavan (2014)

Background Patient retrospective recollection is a mainstay of assessing symptoms in mental health and psychiatry. However, evidence suggests that these retrospective recollections may not be as accurate as data collection though the experience sampling method (ESM), which captures patient data in “real time” and “real life.” However, the difficulties in practical implementation of ESM data collection have limited its impact in psychiatry and mental health. Smartphones with the capability to run mobile applications may offer a novel method of collecting ESM data that may represent a practical and feasible tool for mental health and psychiatry. Objective This paper aims to provide data on psychiatric patients’ prevalence of smartphone ownership, patterns of use, and interest in utilizing mobile applications to monitor their mental health conditions. Methods One hundred psychiatric outpatients at a large urban teaching hospital completed a paper-and-pencil survey regarding smartphone ownership, use, and interest in utilizing mobile applications to monitor their mental health condition. Results Ninety-seven percent of patients reported owning a phone and 72% reported that their phone was a smartphone. Patients in all age groups indicated greater than 50% interest in using a mobile application on a daily basis to monitor their mental health condition. Conclusions Smartphone and mobile applications represent a practical opportunity to explore new modalities of monitoring, treatment, and research of psychiatric and mental health conditions.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Jim Duggan:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7507-8617

School of Computer ScienceNational University of Ireland GalwayUniversity RoadGalway, H91 TK33Ireland353 91493336james.duggan@nuigalway.ie

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Med Internet Res

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J. Med. Internet Res

Journal ID (publisher-id): JMIR

Title: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Publisher: JMIR Publications (Toronto, Canada )

ISSN (Print): 1439-4456

ISSN (Electronic): 1438-8871

Publication date Collection: July 2020

Publication date (Electronic): 30 July 2020

Volume: 22

Issue: 7

Electronic Location Identifier: e17481

Affiliations

[1 ] School of Computer Science National University of Ireland Galway Galway Ireland

[2 ] Health Service Executive Ennis Ireland

[3 ] School of Psychology National University of Ireland Galway Galway Ireland

[4 ] HSE Community Healthcare West Galway Ireland

Author notes

Corresponding Author: Jim Duggan james.duggan@ 123456nuigalway.ie

Author information

Conor O'Grady https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7346-7299

Ruth Melia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1152-5510

John Bogue https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7070-1561

Mary O'Sullivan https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0832-6921

Karen Young https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9452-2293

Jim Duggan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7507-8617

Article

Publisher ID: v22i7e17481

DOI: 10.2196/17481

PMC ID: 7426795

PubMed ID: 32729845

SO-VID: faf486fb-bdea-48c4-9f21-94bfe711811a

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

History

Date received : 16 December 2019

Date revision requested : 10 February 2020

Date revision received : 27 May 2020

Date accepted : 11 June 2020

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