Managed Care Updates of Subscriber Jail Release to Prompt Community Suicide Prevention: Clinical Trial Protocol

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-25-2023

Publication Title

Res Sq

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recent jail detention is a marker for trait and state suicide risk in community-based populations. However, healthcare providers are typically unaware that their client was in jail and few post-release suicide prevention efforts exist. This protocol paper describes an effectiveness-implementation trial evaluating community suicide prevention practices triggered by advances in informatics that alert CareSource, a large managed care organization (MCO), when a subscriber is released from jail.

METHODS: This randomized controlled trial investigates two evidence-based suicide prevention practices triggered by CareSource's jail detention/release notifications, in a partial factorial design. The first phase randomizes ~43,000 CareSource subscribers who pass through any Ohio jail to receive Caring Contact letters sent by CareSource or to Usual Care after jail release. The second phase (running simultaneously) involves a subset of ~6,000 of the 43,000 subscribers passing through jail who have been seen in one of 12 contracted behavioral health agencies in the 6 months prior to incarceration in a stepped-wedge design. Agencies will receive: (a) notifications of the client's jail detention/release, (b) instructions for re-engaging these clients, and (c) training in suicide risk assessment and the Safety Planning Intervention for use at re-engagement. We will track suicide-related and service linkage outcomes 6 months following jail release using claims data.

CONCLUSIONS: This design allows us to rigorously test two intervention main effects and their interaction. It also provides valuable information on the effects of system-level change and the scalability of interventions using big data from a MCO to flag jail release and suicide risk.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05579600). Registered 27 June, 2023, https://beta.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05579600?cond=Suicide&term=Managed%20Care&rank=1.

PubMed ID

37841869

ePublication

ePub ahead of print

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