Group-Based Suicide Safety Planning for Veterans with High Suicide Risk Via In-Person and Telehealth Delivery

Abstract Objective Suicide-specific group psychotherapy is a novel approach to suicide prevention with promising supporting data. However, limited research examines telehealth delivery for suicide-specific interventions. This study described treatment engagement and suicide-related coping (SRC) trajectories among Veterans receiving a group suicide safety planning intervention before and after a transition from in-person to telehealth delivery. Methods Project Life Force (PLF) is a group suicide safety planning intervention evaluated within a randomized clinical trial. During the COVID-19 pandemic, PLF transitioned from in-person to telehealth, creating naturalistic pre-pandemic in-person and pandemic-era telehealth cohorts. This report focused on participants randomized to PLF and described treatment initiation, engagement, completion, and SRC trajectories across cohorts. Findings : Baseline suicidal ideation and SRC were higher in the pre-pandemic in-person cohort than the pandemic-era telehealth cohort. The telehealth cohort showed higher rates of treatment initiation descriptively than the in-person cohort, while treatment engagement and completion among treatment initiators were more similar across delivery periods. Both cohorts showed improvement in SRC that was sustained over time. Conclusions Elevated treatment initiation occurred with virtual delivery of PLF. Both pre-pandemic in-person and pandemic-era telehealth cohorts showed similar patterns of group engagement as well as development and sustainment of SRC over time. As telehealth can reduce barriers to care, these data lend support to the promise of virtual, group-based, suicide-related interventions. Since treatment modality was determined by the pandemic and not randomized, delivery context, cohort characteristics, and pandemic-related factors may have impacted observed patterns. Randomized studies comparing delivery modalities should clarify potential treatment modality differences.