A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Veterans Coping Long Term With Active Suicide (CLASP) Program

Veteran suicide rates remain unac-ceptably high despite recent initia-tives and the surge in new prevention programs. Many suicide prevention interventions are treatment intensive and require significant training and ex-pertise to deliver, and few have been developed and tested specifically for veterans. The Coping Long Term with Active Suicide Program (CLASP) is an adjunctive telephone-based sui-cide prevention program designed to reduce suicide behaviors after psy-chiatric hospitalization. CLASP was modified and tested with a veteran sample. One hundred three veterans hospitalized for suicide risk were ran-domized to CLASP versus Veterans Af-fairs' treatment as usual and observed for 12 months after hospital discharge. All veterans, regardless of treatment condition, showed a reduction in both suicide behaviors and rehospitalization during a 12-month period. Implications for Veterans Affairs suicide preven-tion are discussed. [Psychiatr Ann. 2022;52(5):199-207.]