Suicide prevention safety planning in the US Department of defense: Qualitative assessment of training

Abstract

Introduction: Suicide rates in the military are a significant public health concern. The suicide prevention safety planning intervention is a brief and effective intervention in which a provider and patient work collaboratively to recognize warning signs of a suicidal crisis and create a defined list of coping strategies and supports for use during future crises (Stanley & Brown, 2012). Implementation of safety planning has been supported by the Department of Defense (DoD), yet readily available training and continuing education for healthcare providers in this intervention is limited and passive in nature. Existing safety planning training experiences and needs of DoD behavioral health providers are unknown. The present study is an exploratory qualitative assessment of current safety planning in DoD to inform the design and development of an interactive virtual standardized training patient. Method: Ten military behavioral health providers completed semi-structured interviews. Results: Thematic content analysis was conducted, and three themes are described in this paper: variety of training received, barriers to receiving suicide safety planning training, and desires for future training. Lack of protected time for training and a lack of access to training resources were identified as key barriers. Conclusions: Rich data obtained can help inform the key design features and relevance of new safety planning intervention training approaches.