Extant literature has demonstrated that suicide safety planning is an efficacious intervention for reducing patient risk for suicide-related behaviors. However, little is known about factors that may impact the effectiveness of the intervention, such as provider training and comfort, use of specific safety plan elements, circumstances under which providers choose to use safety planning, and personal factors which influence a provider’s decision to use safety planning. Participants were (N = 119) safety plan providers who responded to an anonymous web-based survey. Results indicated that most providers had received training in safety planning and were comfortable with the intervention. Providers reported that skills such as identifying warning signs and means safety strategies were routinely used. Providers who reported exposure to suicide were more likely to complete safety plans with patients regardless of risk factors. In addition, almost 70% of providers indicated a need for further training. These data provide important considerations for safety plan implementation and training.

Psychological theories of suicide posit conceptually similar constructs related to the development of suicidal thinking. These constructs often evince high-magnitude interrelationships across studies. Within these theories, defeat, entrapment and hopelessness standout as conceptually and quantitatively similar. Theoretical improvements may be facilitated through clarifying the subscale and item-level similarities among these constructs. Factor analytic and phenomenological work has demonstrated equivocal evidence for a distinction between defeat and entrapment; hopelessness is not typically analyzed together with defeat and entrapment despite evidence of large-magnitude interrelationships. This study explored the interrelationships among the foregoing constructs within a sample of undergraduate students (N = 344) from two universities within the Southeastern United States. Participants, oversampled for lifetime history of suicidal ideation and attempts, completed an online cross-sectional survey assessing defeat, entrapment, hopelessness and SI. Exploratory factor and parallel analyses demonstrated support for a one factor solution when analyzed at subscale level of the three measures as well as when all items of the three measures were analyzed together. Ad hoc exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) bifactor results evinced support for the existence of a single, general factor at the item level. Item level communalities and bifactor fit indices suggest that hopelessness may be somewhat distinct from defeat and entrapment. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed in the context of study limitations.

Rates of suicide in the US Army continue to rise, and by some accounts exceed the general population. This increase has renewed efforts to identify protective factors that may inform novel suicide prevention strategies. Previous research has demonstrated that a sense of purpose in life and perceived cohesion with military peers are related to a reduction in the severity of suicidal ideation (SI). Additionally, research in military samples supports decreased SI in Soldiers who endorse that their leaders convey a sense of purpose and meaning in their shared mission. However, no work has investigated whether these leadership styles relate to a sense of felt purpose and perceived cohesion in Soldiers and thus the indirect effect of these leadership styles on SI. Active duty Army Soldiers (n = 1,160) completed self-report measures of purpose in life (PiL), perceived cohesion, ethical leadership, loneliness, and SI. Indirect effect analyses were conducted to determine how leadership behaviors indirectly relate to SI through PiL and perceived cohesion. Indirect effect analyses revealed that ethical leadership had an indirect effect on reduced SI through increased PiL. In the same parallel indirect effect analysis, ethical leadership was related to less SI through increased perceived cohesion and decreased loneliness sequentially. Enhanced leadership training that effectively increases Soldier purpose may be an important primary prevention tool to mitigate the effect of suicide risk factors. This primary prevention strategy may help augment existing suicide surveillance and clinical prevention efforts to reduce Soldier risk for suicide.