Introduction
This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Veterans Crisis Line on immediate call
outcomes (i.e., caller distress, suicidal ideation, and suicidal urgency) for veterans
who provide identifying information.
Methods
Coders rated pre- and post-distress, suicidal ideation, and suicidal urgency for 647
calls from 2019 veteran callers. Intraclass correlation coefficients examined inter-rater
reliability. Multilevel generalized linear modeling examined pre–post changes.
Results
Inter-rater reliability was good for distress, excellent for suicidal ideation, and
fair for urgency. Callers had 5 times greater odds of a reduction in distress (AOR=5.03,
95% CI=3.98, 6.49), almost 5 times greater odds of a reduction in suicidal ideation
(AOR=4.92, 95% CI=3.49, 6.94), and 11 times greater odds of a reduction in suicidal
urgency (AOR=11.01, 95% CI=2.72, 44.50) at the end of calls than at the beginning.
Conclusions
Veterans Crisis Line callers who provide identifying information experience reductions
in distress and suicidal ideation during the call. Research is needed to examine the
reduction in suicidal urgency because of fair reliability, generalizability of results
to other callers, post-call treatment contact and engagement, and risk for suicide
attempts and death.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: March 11, 2022
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
