Cost comparison of in-person and telehealth modalities for a suicide safety planning group intervention: interim results from the “Project Life Force” randomized clinical trial

Frontiers in Psychiatry

Psychiatry

Shari Jager-Hyman¹  Sara J. Landes²  Rebecca A. Raciborski³  Kyra K. Hamerling-Potts⁴  Sarah R. Sullivan⁴  Marianne Goodman⁵  Nidhi Kapil-Pair⁶  Emily L. Mitchell⁷ 

[1] Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States;Evidence, Policy, and Implementation Center, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, North Little Rock, AR, United States;Behavioral Health Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI), Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, North Little Rock, AR, United States;Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States;VA Center for Mental Healthcare and Outcomes Research, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, North Little Rock, AR, United States;Evidence, Policy, and Implementation Center, Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, North Little Rock, AR, United States;Behavioral Health Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI), Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, North Little Rock, AR, United States;VISN 2 Mental Illness, Research, Education, Clinical Center (MIRECC), James J. Peters Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States;VISN 2 Mental Illness, Research, Education, Clinical Center (MIRECC), James J. Peters Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States;Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States;VISN 2 Mental Illness, Research, Education, Clinical Center (MIRECC), James J. Peters Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States;Department of Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States;VISN 2 Mental Illness, Research, Education, Clinical Center (MIRECC), James J. Peters Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States;Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, United States;

关键词: cost analysis;    cost minimization;    telehealth;    suicide prevention;    safety planning intervention;    group intervention;    veterans;    randomized clinical trial;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1215247

 received in 2023-05-01, accepted in 2023-09-05,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Suicide prevention is a clinical priority for the US Veterans Health Administration. Evidence-based interventions, including developing a suicide safety plan, are recommended practices and are becoming more widespread. Adaptations to further augment safety planning include a manualized group intervention (Project Life Force, PLF) that combines safety planning with the teaching of skills to maximize use of the plan. A multi-year randomized controlled trial to test efficacy of PLF compared to treatment as usual is currently in progress. However, approximately a year into the study, in-person groups were converted to telehealth groups due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study compares the per-veteran cost of PLF when delivered in-person versus by telehealth using preliminary trial data from the first 2.5 years of the trial. Cost to deliver PLF was obtained from the Veterans Health Administration’s Managerial Cost Accounting data, which relies on activity-based costing. We found no significant differences in the average number of sessions or average group size between in-person and telehealth. However, the cost per group session was lower for the telehealth modality and this led to significant overall per-veteran savings. While efficacy data comparing from the two arms is still underway and we await the ongoing RCT results, our interim cost analysis highlights potential savings with the telehealth modality.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright At least a portion of this work is authored by Rebecca A. Raciborski, Kyra K. Hamerling-Potts, Emily L. Mitchell, Sarah R. Sullivan, Nidhi Kapil- Pair, Sara J. Landes and Marianne Goodman on behalf of the U.S. Government and as regards Shari Jager-Hyman and the U.S. Government, is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Foreign and other copyrights may apply.