Implementation of Mobile Health Applications Safety Plan (MHASP) to Reduce the Risk of Suicide

Suicide is one of the most serious public health issues in the US today. Suicide is of particular interest because it is the tenth leading cause of death for all ages in the United States, the second leading cause of death in ages 10-34, and the fourth leading cause of death in ages 35-54 (CDC, 2020). Despite national goals to lower the suicide rate, several recent reports have documented a steady increase in suicide rates in recent years. Suicide rates continues to rise in almost every state. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe a quality improvement project (QI) that was carried out to increase knowledge and use of a Mobile Health Applications Safety Plan (MHASP) to reduce the risk of suicide. The need for this project was identified at an outpatient clinic where patients at high risk for suicide were not receiving printed completed safety plan or enhanced instruction. Several studies identified potential barriers to adherence including complexity of treatment, low health literacy, and persistent symptoms while other studies displayed the positive impact of enhanced instruction on reducing the risks of suicide. This QI project lasted 6-week period and included a telehealth intervention that used verbal instructions and teach-back to improve knowledge. Participants filled-out surveys before and after intervention. Despite the small sample size, all the participants showed improvements. Based on these findings, the outpatient clinic was advised to continue reinforcing knowledge of the mobile suicide safety plan application and to incorporate a telehealth follow-up program to emphasize proper application use for these patients. Future projects and research should focus on larger sample sizes over longer periods of time as well as tracking suicide risks and outcomes.