Department of Veterans Affairs, Robley Rex VA Medical Center, Louisville, KY, USA.
Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, USA.
Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2021 Apr;51(2):263-273. doi: 10.1111/sltb.12702.
Crisis hotlines are an important part of a public health approach to suicide prevention. The Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) provides hotline services to Veterans. There is a paucity of research concerning the effectiveness of the VCL. The current work describes efforts to establish groundwork for VCL effectiveness research.
155 VCL users who were referred to a Veterans Affairs Medical Center Suicide Prevention Team completed interviews including open-ended and closed-ended questions. Outcomes are reported for suicidal participants, non-suicidal participants, and those who had emergency intervention. Thematic analysis was used for open-ended questions.
Eighty-seven percent of interviewees expressed satisfaction with the VCL, 81.9% reported that the VCL was helpful, and 72.9% said that the VCL helped keep them safe. Of those with suicidal thoughts, 82.6% said the contact helped stop them from killing themselves. Themes are described concerning user identified reasons for VCL contact, most and least helpful aspects of the contact, and suggestions for improvement.
This project demonstrates that this group of people who used the VCL overwhelmingly finds the service to be helpful and a barrier to suicide. Further, implications of user feedback for application to VCL operations and future research are discussed.
危机热线是预防自杀的公共卫生方法的重要组成部分。退伍军人危机热线 (VCL) 为退伍军人提供热线服务。关于 VCL 的有效性的研究很少。目前的工作描述了为 VCL 有效性研究奠定基础的努力。
155 名被转介到退伍军人事务医疗中心自杀预防小组的 VCL 用户完成了包括开放式和封闭式问题在内的访谈。报告了有自杀念头的参与者、无自杀念头的参与者和那些接受紧急干预的参与者的结果。对开放式问题使用了主题分析。
87%的受访者对 VCL 表示满意，81.9%表示 VCL 有帮助，72.9%表示 VCL 帮助他们保持安全。有自杀念头的人中，82.6%表示联系帮助他们停止自杀。描述了用户确定联系 VCL 的原因、联系最有帮助和最没有帮助的方面以及改进建议的主题。
本项目表明，这组使用 VCL 的人压倒性地认为该服务很有帮助，是自杀的障碍。此外，还讨论了用户反馈对 VCL 运营和未来研究的应用的影响。
