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UConn CHASM 6th Annual Conference 2022: "Telehealth and Remote Care in a Post-Pandemic World" (54)

Published on in Vol 8, No 1 (2022): Jan-Dec

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/39402, first published .
Feasibility and Acceptability of Recruitment and Retention in a Remote Trial of Gatekeeper Training for Military Veterans

Feasibility and Acceptability of Recruitment and Retention in a Remote Trial of Gatekeeper Training for Military Veterans

Feasibility and Acceptability of Recruitment and Retention in a Remote Trial of Gatekeeper Training for Military Veterans

Authors of this article:

Alan Robert Teo1, 2, 3 Author Orcid Image ;   Aaron Alexander Call1 Author Orcid Image ;   Elizabeth R Hooker1 ;   Clarissa Fong4 ;   Elizabeth Karras5 ;   Steven K Dobscha1, 2
Article Authors Cited by Tweetations Metrics

    Abstract

    1HSR&D Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care, VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR, United States

    2Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States

    3School of Public Health, Oregon Health & Science University and Portland State University, Portland, OR, United States

    4OHSU Brain Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States

    5Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, Canandaigua VA Medical Center, Canandaigua, NY, United States

    Corresponding Author:

    Alan Robert Teo, MS, MD

    HSR&D Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care

    VA Portland Health Care System

    3710 SW US Veterans Hospital Rd (R&D 66)

    Portland, OR, 97239

    United States

    Phone: 1 5032208262 ext 52461

    Email: teoa@ohsu.edu


    Background: SAVE (Signs; Ask; Validate; Encourage) is a brief gatekeeper training designed to teach lay individuals how to identify and assist military veterans at risk for suicide. SAVE can be delivered asynchronously using a web-based video format, but no studies of the effectiveness of SAVE exist.

    Objective: The aim of this project was to determine the feasibility and acceptability of recruitment and retention in a remote trial of SAVE.

    Methods: We conducted a social media campaign using sponsored Facebook posts (ads) to recruit veterans, including those outside the Veterans Affairs network of care, and their loved ones. Participants (N=214) were randomized to SAVE or a sham video training unrelated to suicide prevention and followed for 6 months. We also conducted qualitative interviews with a subgroup (n=15) and used a mixed methods framework to integrate findings.

    Results: At baseline, most participants were a family member or friend of a veteran (146/214, 68.2%), and 47.7% (102/214) knew at least one veteran or service member who had died by suicide. Across both study arms, 73.8% (158/214) responded to at least 3 of 6 follow-up surveys and 72.4% (155/214) completed follow-up at 6 months. Themes from interviews indicated the following three barriers to study participation: generic posts, copy (ad text) referring to “research,” and Facebook as a platform. There were 5 facilitators to participation: audience segmentation focused on veterans’ family members and friends, an urgent call to action to help a veteran, prior exposure to suicide, emphasizing the benefits of receiving training, and using a university as the campaign messenger.

    Conclusions: A social media campaign was a feasible and acceptable approach to recruiting and retaining participants—especially the loved ones of veterans with prior exposure to suicide—for a fully remote trial of SAVE gatekeeper training. Several campaign strategies may be applied to further promote remote study participation in this population.

    Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04565951; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04565951

    Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

    iproc 2022;8(1):e39402

    doi:10.2196/39402

    Keywords

    suicide; social media; virtual; pilot; veterans; caregiver 

    Edited by S Pagoto; This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 09.05.22; accepted 24.06.22; published 06.07.22

    Copyright

    ©Alan Robert Teo, Aaron Alexander Call, Elizabeth R Hooker, Clarissa Fong, Elizabeth Karras, Steven K Dobscha. Originally published in Iproceedings (https://www.iproc.org), 06.07.2022.

    This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in Iproceedings, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.iproc.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.