Caring Letters for Military Suicide Prevention

This social/ behavioral study is a five year multi-site randomized controlled trial that will compare the Caring Letters intervention (with usual care) to usual care without the caring letters. Participants will be recruited from inpatient psychiatry units of collaborating military and Veterans Affairs (VA) sites and randomized to either a group that receives letters (Caring Letters group) or a group that does not receive letters (Usual Care group). The methodology of the intervention is updated with emails instead of postal letters. This study fills an important gap in the evidence base for the Caring Letter intervention through a methodologically rigorous research design.