Caring Texts: A Strength-based, Suicide Prevention Trial in 4 Native Communities (CARE)

Status: Current

Grant Start: 06/01/2016

Grant End: 04/30/2024

Caring Contacts is one of only two interventions that have been found to prevent death by suicide in a randomized controlled trial. Caring Contacts has never been evaluated in an American Indian nor Alaska Native community using a rigorous study design. The Caring Texts: A Strength-based, Suicide Prevention Trial in 4 Native Communities (CARE) study is designed to do so after a careful cultural review and adaptation of Caring Contacts to reflect the needs, priorities, and preferences of four partnering Tribal communities. Our Specific Aims are to: 1) Compare the effectiveness of usual care (control) to usual care plus supportive and Caring Contacts (intervention) for reducing suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and suicide-related hospitalizations; and 2) Evaluate the mechanistic role of perceived social connectedness as a mediating factor for the effect of the intervention on suicidality. 

Partners

  • Missouri Breaks Industries Research Inc. (MBIRI)
  • Cherokee Nation
  • Cherokee Nation Health Services
  • Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
  • Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes
  • Fort Peck Tribes' Health Promotion Disease Prevention (HPDP) program
  • Oglala Sioux Tribe

Funding Sponsors

  • Federal - National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
  • National Institute of Mental Health

Communities Involved

  • Tribal communities

Study Type

  • Randomized controlled trial
  • Intervention
  • Community based participatory research
  • Quanititative Research
  • Mixed methods
  • Qualitative research

Study Characteristics

  • Ages 18 plus

Principal Investigator(s)

Team Member(s)

Heath Research Initiatives

  • American Indian and Alaska Native

Focus Areas

  • Mental health
  • Suicide prevention