Training Community Healthcare Providers in Lethal Means Safety Counseling to Reduce Veteran Suicide Deaths

In 2018, the VA Patient Safety Center of Inquiry – Suicide Prevention Collaborative (PSCI-SPC) was funded by the VA National Center for Patient Safety to develop community-based Veteran suicide prevention solutions. PSCI-SPC has developed a Veteran suicide prevention learning collaborative model for community organizations. The learning collaborative provided: (1) technical assistance in implementing Veteran suicide prevention; (2) education and training; and (3) facilitation of organization connections. No participating organizations provided lethal means safety counseling.

Sustainability is crucial in ensuring implementations continue reaching larger numbers of Veterans over time. Creating organizational policies that codify suicide prevention procedures and training are a critical piece of sustainability.

Through our established partnerships with VA community care organizations within the PSCI-SPC and the support of the Face the Fight Initiative, we have established a quality improvement program focused specifically on lethal means safety policies, procedures, and training. Fourteen (N = 14) organizations have implemented lethal means safety counseling trainings (both existing VA-TRAIN modules and custom trainings provided by our team) and revised their current suicide prevention policies or created new policies to included procedures to facilitate lethal means safety counseling (e.g., screening Veterans for access to lethal means, incorporating lethal means safety into safety plans). In addition, our team has provided tailored lethal means safety materials focused on special Veteran populations at increasing risk for suicide (i.e., Hispanic and Women Veterans), as well as firearm safes for Veterans and their family members to store of firearms, ammunition, and other lethal means. Organizational leaders have requested additional trainings, and 9 organizations are willing and able to participate in a renewal of the original project.