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Evaluation ViewAttendees 5

Category: Suicide and Self-Injury

Symposium 65 - Increasing the effectiveness of real-time suicide intervention

Saturday, November 18, 2023
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM PST
Location: Skykomish (604), Level 6
CE: 1

Keywords: Suicide, Technology / Mobile Health,
Level of Familiarity: Moderate
Recommended Readings: Coppersmith, D. D., Dempsey, W., Kleiman, E. M., Bentley, K. H., Murphy, S. A., & Nock, M. K. (2022). Just-in-time adaptive interventions for suicide prevention: Promise, challenges, and future directions. Psychiatry, 85(4), 317-333.,   Nahum-Shani, I., Smith, S. N., Spring, B. J., Collins, L. M., Witkiewitz, K., Tewari, A., & Murphy, S. A. (2018). Just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) in mobile health: key components and design principles for ongoing health behavior support. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 52(6), 446-462.,   Kleiman, E. M., Turner, B. J., Fedor, S., Beale, E. E., Huffman, J. C., & Nock, M. K. (2017). Examination of real-time fluctuations in suicidal ideation and its risk factors: Results from two ecological momentary assessment studies. Journal of abnormal psychology, 126(6), 726.,   ,  

Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States, with an estimated death approximately every 11 minutes. While the public health impact of suicide is clearly significant, suicide-based interventions have struggled to meaningfully impact the suicide rate. Evidence suggests that risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors can vary widely over short periods and thus do not lend themselves to aggregate assessments of risk. Novel intervention models are needed that can address the dynamic nature of suicide risk. Digital just-in-time interventions can make use of input from both ecological momentary assessment, as well as wearable devices, to identify critical moments or contexts in which participants would benefit from receiving an intervention. Use of just-in-time intervention strategies has primarily occurred in the behavioral health literature (e.g., physical activity interventions). Since they can be delivered when they are most relevant and tailored for contexts associated with risk (e.g., during and immediately after hospitalization for suicidal behaviors) these interventions are also very promising for intervention with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. However, literature on just-in-time intervention for suicide is still in its nascent stage. Moreover, it is associated with unique challenges compared to behavioral health interventions (e.g., smoking cessation, weight loss). As such, there are a number of questions and barriers to solve in order to move toward effective just-in-time interventions, particularly when considering broader dissemination and adoption. Some of these issues include: managing the ethical implications of collecting real-time suicide risk data, determining which evidence-based practices are most effective to deliver (and when), as well as maintaining engagement in a sample with high clinical risk. Preliminary data on novel just-in-time interventions for suicide will be presented that are beginning to address some of these concerns and identify next steps that need to be addressed in future research.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the session, the learner will be able to:
  • Describe unique just-in-time intervention barriers in the context of suicidal populations.
  • Describe the rationale for just-in-time interventions, particularly in the post-discharge period following hospitalization for suicide.
  • Summarize preliminary data from ongoing efforts to develop and implement just-in-time digital interventions with suicidal populations.
  • Describe the pros and cons of including people into a digital intervention loop.
  • Describe areas future research must address to improve the quality and broader adoptability of digital just-in-time interventions for suicide.