A review of evidence-based follow-up care for suicide prevention: where do we go from here?

Abstract

Follow-up services are an important component of a comprehensive, national strategy for suicide prevention. Increasing our knowledge of effective follow-up care has been identified as an Aspirational Goal by The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention's Research Prioritization Task Force. Several recent comprehensive reviews informed the selection of studies included in this brief review. Studies of follow-up services that reported significant effects for the outcomes of death by suicide, suicide attempts, or suicidal ideation were included. Although there is a paucity of research in this area, promising paradigms that have demonstrated effectiveness in preventing suicide and suicide attempts and reducing suicidal ideation will be discussed. The major limitations of the literature in this area include numerous methodological flaws in the design and analyses of such studies and the lack of replication of studies with positive findings. This paper identifies several breakthroughs that would be helpful for advancing this area of research and describes a comprehensive research pathway for achieving both short- and long-term research objectives.