Implementing nudges for suicide prevention in real-world environments: project INSPIRE study protocol.

Area of Science:

• Implementation Science
• Behavioral Economics
• Public Health

Background:

• Suicide is a critical global health issue.
• Evidence-based suicide screening, assessment, and intervention practices are underutilized in routine care.
• Individuals at risk for suicide frequently present in primary care and specialty mental health settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and test implementation strategies for evidence-based suicide care.
• To leverage behavioral economics principles to inform strategy development.
• To improve the routine deployment of suicide prevention practices in key healthcare settings.

Main Methods:

• Conduct contextual inquiry with clinicians to identify implementation barriers.
• Design behavioral economics-informed implementation strategies with stakeholder input.
• Utilize rapid-cycle trials to test and refine strategies for feasibility and acceptability.

Main Results:

• Identification of key barriers to implementing suicide care practices.
• Development of a menu of behavioral economics-informed implementation strategies.
• Preliminary data on the feasibility and acceptability of tested strategies.

Conclusions:

• Elucidate common and unique barriers to suicide care implementation.
• Yield refined, pragmatically tested strategies for suicide prevention.
• Inform larger trials to address the public health crisis of suicide.