Mission Daybreak Grand Challenge Finalist
Reducing Veteran suicides is a top clinical priority for VA. That’s why VA launched the Mission Daybreak grand challenge in 2022, which awarded $20 million to suicide prevention solutions that can meet the diverse needs of Veterans. Building off the work that began with the grand challenge, the mission brings Veterans, researchers, technologists, advocates, healthcare providers, health innovators, and service members together to collaborate and advance suicide prevention solutions.
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Origin: January 2018, Dover, DE Partners: Academic Affiliations, Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning (OHIL), Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP)
Early Alert conducts weekly individual check-ins via confidential text messaging, and connects Veterans to local and national support resources in VA and in the community, up to and including live counseling. Individual responses are de-identified and aggregated to create a population wellness dashboard to support VA monitoring, evaluation, and research regarding wellness policies and programming.
Problem
Veterans often delay seeking support, resulting in increased rates of crisis and suicide. Frequent individual check-ins to identify emerging distress would be ideal, but they are impossible to conduct at scale due to VA staffing constraints.
Solution
Early Alert checks in with Veterans once a week via text messaging, and offers instant referrals to VA and community resources, up to and including 24/7 live counseling. Individual responses are de-identified and aggregated to create a population wellness dashboard to support VA monitoring, evaluation, and research regarding wellness policies and programming.
Results
In pilot deployments with VA facilities, Early Alert enhanced crisis care, facilitated care transition and increased access to effective clinical care by addressing upstream risk factors through weekly check-ins with high response rates, high rates of referral utilization, and high rates of subscriber retention. Early Alert successfully identified Veterans requiring support and provided real-time counseling and referrals to these Veterans. Early Alert successfully delivered a Population Wellness Dashboard with de-identified aggregate data, to support VA monitoring, evaluation, and research regarding wellness policies and programming.