Dissemination of the Safety Planning Intervention (SPI) to University Counseling Center Clinicians to Reduce Suicide Risk among College Students.

OBJECTIVE: Suicide risk on college campuses remains a pervasive problem. Structural deficits in current clinical care models often result in sub-optimal treatment for suicidal students. This study reports on the feasibility, acceptability and utility of the Safety Planning Intervention (SPI), a brief, empirically-validated, clinician-administered suicide prevention intervention, in a university counseling center (UCC) setting.

METHODS: Twelve university counseling center direct service staff completed a 2-hour training in SPI. Participants reported on suicide intervention practices, training needs, and confidence at baseline and 10 weeks post-training. Acceptability, utility, and frequency of SPI use were assessed at follow-up.

RESULTS: All clinical staff attended the training and found it useful, reporting that confidence in managing suicide risk increased as a result. Two-thirds of staff implemented SPI least once.

CONCLUSION: Results suggest that SPI is a feasible, acceptable, and useful suicide intervention tool for UCCs.