PS34 - Risk and Resilience for Suicide: From Biology to Environment

Safety Plan for Resilience Using Virtual Reality
August, 30 | 14:00 - 15:30

Safety plans for suicide prevention are used both in ERs and as part of psychotherapies which focus on suicide prevention. Safety plans can be modified to be used for earlier stages of suicide prevention by adapting them to teach and practice resilience skills. In the current study, we developed a brief resilience plan intervention (RPI), based on the Safety Plan Intervention (SPI) which aims to improve psychological resilience in the general population. The current study examined whether a single-session RPI via VR simulation is feasible and can improve an individual's self-efficacy to cope and help others cope with situations of emotional distress. We also examined whether those effects remained significant at one-month follow up. 116 Israeli adults aged 18-60 (M= 29.12, SD= 10.69) from the general population were randomly assigned to develop a RPI in one of two conditions, either with ‘Daniel,’ a distressed virtual agent, or with a research-assistant who was role-playing a person in emotional distress. After the simulation, participants built their own resilience plan. Questionnaires about coping self-efficacy and self-efficacy in helping others were completed at three-time points: pre-training, immediately post-training, and at one-month follow-up. The study’s findings provide positive support for the feasibility and acceptability of RPI. Results revealed significantly greater coping self-efficacy and self-efficacy in helping others following the intervention, with no significant differences between conditions. Improvements in coping self-efficacy remained significant one-month post-intervention, while changes in self-efficacy in helping others did not remain significant at one-month follow-up.

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