UTILIZING NUTRITION SERVICES PROVIDERS TO PREVENT LATE LIFE SUICIDE: IMPLEMENTING A RANDOMIZED, CONTROLLED TRIAL
Abstract A challenge in preventing late life suicide is identifying and responding to persons at risk prior to a suicide attempt. Distressed older adults are less likely to turn to a mental health professional, meaning that community based prevention strategies are vitally important to comprehensive prevention frameworks. Due to their "natural helper" role, nutrition services (NS) volunteers may be well positioned to identify suicide warning signs and respond accordingly. Unfortunately, there is a lack of systematic, empirically tested evaluations of the effectiveness of community based strategies to prevent older adult suicide, including the use of NS volunteers. To remedy this, the authors partnered with several home and community based service organizations to measure the impact of training nutrition services volunteers in suicide prevention skills. The authors will present preliminary findings from this federally funded randomized, controlled trial of suicide prevention training (i.e. ASIST; safeTALK) on late life suicidality and its correlates.
Innovation in Aging