Penn Innovation in Suicide Prevention Implementation Research (INSPIRE) Center

This proposal is to develop the University of Pennsylvania’s Innovation in Suicide Prevention Implementation Research (INSPIRE) Center. Suicide is a leading cause of death in the US. Guided by a conceptual model based on the Integrated Behavior Model, which posits that organizational culture, policies, and resources (or lack thereof) impact the provider’s attributes and behaviors, INSPIRE brings together psychology, implementation science, health economics, machine learning, health information technology, psychiatry and participatory research experts to apply innovative interdisciplinary approaches to suicide prevention. INSPIRE’s overarching goals are to develop and adapt practice-based and other suicide prevention interventions and to design and test implementation strategies to optimize how evidence-based practices can be brought to scale efficiently and with high fidelity, for optimal effectiveness. INSPIRE will prioritize strategies that can be rapidly deployed in a range of practice settings, including those with limited resources, thereby increasing their reach and public health impact. Penn INSPIRE will use state-of-the-science methods from participatory research to actively engage stakeholders from many sectors – including patients, providers, and payers – at every level of its work to accomplish its Specific Aims. INSPIRE will apply innovative, interdisciplinary behavior change and implementation science methods to develop, adapt, and evaluate cost effective interventions. A Signature Project will use a stepped wedge study design to test an innovative organizational strategy that leverages telehealth to deliver high quality Safety Planning Intervention and follow-up services in Emergency Departments. Three Exploratory Projects will test novel strategies for suicide prevention across individual, clinician, and organizational levels that will lay the foundation for more definitive studies. INSPIRE will also support 10 pilot projects and an innovative Methods Core that will develop and test new methods to advance research at the intersection of suicide prevention and implementation science. The Suicide Prevention Scholars Program will expand the cadre of suicide prevention researchers by engaging both emerging investigators and established scientists who do not currently work on suicide prevention through content, design. and methodological mentoring and capacity-building. By catalyzing interdisciplinary, cross-sector collaborations and advancing suicide prevention research, care, and policy both locally and nationally, we will develop cost-effective, practical, and efficient ways to implement evidence-based suicide prevention interventions. INSPIRE is poised to be transformational for suicide prevention.