Suicide Safety Planning Group Treatment: "Project Life Force"

For suicidal individuals, minimizing future risk and fostering recovery are critical public health concerns, especially among Veterans, as very few effective interventions exist. This proposal tests a novel group psychotherapy treatment that combines emotion regulation skill based, and psychoeducational approaches, with suicide safety planning development and implementation. "Project Life Force" (PLF), a novel suicide safety planning group intervention has been designed to fill this critical gap and provide a mechanism to develop and enhance suicide safety planning over time. PLF, a 12-session, group psychotherapy intervention, combines Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skill based and psychoeducational approaches, to enhance suicide safety planning development and implementation. Veterans revise their plans over several weeks while learning distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and friendship building/interpersonal skills to incorporate into their safety plans and also receive lessons on gun safety and minimizing access to lethal means. Sessions are augmented with 1) training in the use of a suicide safety planning mobile App to promote accessibility and maximize implementation, and 2) didactic information to bolster recovery, including fostering improved connection with the treatment team, and Veteran's family.