Innovations in Crisis Line Interventions

Area of Science:

• Mental Health
• Public Health
• Psychology

Background:

• Crisis lines are vital for suicide prevention, offering support through active listening and safety planning.
• Innovations in crisis line services include additional interventions beyond standard care.
• Understanding these novel interventions is crucial for improving suicide prevention efforts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature.
• To identify crisis line interventions used beyond usual care.
• To determine which of these interventions have been formally evaluated.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature search was performed across six major databases.
• Results were screened by pairs of analysts using a standardized data extraction form.
• Interventions were synthesized and categorized by type.

Main Results:

• 42 studies described interventions beyond usual care; only seven evaluated them.
• Four studies found evidence supporting specific interventions: ASIST, safety planning, AI for messaging, and a Beijing risk assessment scale.
• Other interventions like crisis de-escalation and AI support for responders were described but not formally assessed.

Conclusions:

• Crisis lines are actively developing new methods to support individuals in distress.
• A significant gap exists in the formal evaluation of many crisis line interventions.
• Further research in real-world settings is necessary to validate the impact of these evolving suicide prevention strategies.