Pilot Test of the Forming Love around Autistic people to Prevent Suicide Program.

Abstract

Notable proportions of autistic people experience suicidal thinking and actions (i.e., suicidality). Many of the identified influences on suicidality for autistic people necessitate broad changes in societal attitudes, services, and supports. Yet most suicide-prevention efforts focus on clinical interventions targeting change for autistic individuals themselves. We used a community-based participatory research approach to develop a novel program for autism-focused (or autism-relevant) community organizations. The program is called Forming Love around Autistic people to Prevent Suicide (FLAPS). FLAPS is a four-part virtual education and capacity-building intervention focused on supporting organizations to incorporate broad autism suicide prevention efforts into their ongoing work. We pilot tested this new program in a single-arm trial. A team of autistic and nonautistic co-facilitators delivered the full FLAPS program three times to grouped organizations. Fifty-one participants, from a total of 11 organizations, enrolled in the program. Our primary outcome measure was the tailored Steps Toward Prevention - Autism Community Suicide Prevention questionnaire, administered at pre-program, post-program, and three-month follow-up. We observed significant increases, with moderate to high effect sizes, in knowledge & capacity and actions. The majority of participants who provided feedback (74%) agreed that FLAPS encouraged them to think in new ways, that it was worth their time, and that their organization can use the information. At the three-month follow-up, over 75% of respondents reported that they sometimes or frequently used concepts from the program. Future work is needed to further evaluate program outcomes, including determining any measurable impact on autistic individuals served within participating organizations.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06552871.