Brief Intervention and Contact Program Main Trial

Suicide is a significant public health concern and causes approximately 1.5% of all deaths in the general population in Canada. Research shows that for individuals with comorbid psychiatric illness and suicidal behaviour, the risk of further suicide attempts persists in the first two years post-discharge with the most vulnerable time being the period immediately post discharge.Several studies have found that alongside usual treatment, follow-up with discharged patients through text messaging, phone calls and letters, contributes to a reduction in attempts and death by suicide, and instances of self-harm. In particular, brief contact interventions have shown positive impacts in reducing further completed suicide and suicidal behaviour in patients presenting to the emergency department following a suicide attempt.The BIC model followed in this study is adapted from the WHO protocol that was utilised as part of the Multisite Intervention Study On Suicidal Behaviours (SUPRE-MISS).

Inclusion Criteria:Admitted following a suicidal behaviour (suicide attempt or with suicidal ideation),At least 16 years of age, no restrictions on sex or genderProvide written, informed consent,Provide consent for research staff to have access to their electronic medical record (EMR),Provide consent for research staff to contact their primary care provider, outpatient and other healthcare providers care team, if necessary,Provide health card number and consent to share with Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and link to Ontario health records to analyze and evaluate events such as admissions, death by suicide and usage of health care services (such as hospitalizations) in Ontario for the period covering the study time and 2 years post study completion. The 2 years post discharge will not be feasible to continue follow up for this trial and are reported to be a risk period in the literature. Therefore, we opted to leverage administrative health record data to enrich the study impact post study completion.Exclusion criteria- We will exclude patients who are unable to understand written and spoken English, as the research staff/clinicians delivering the intervention are limited to English-speaking populations.