Contact resolution among Veterans Crisis Line phone and text contacts regarding Veterans Health Administration enrollees.

Abstract

Introduction: To expand access to suicide prevention and support services, the Veteran Crisis Line (VCL) added text capabilities in 2011. It is unknown whether the likelihood of a contact being terminated by the user varies by contact type. We aimed to assess whether contact resolution varies by contact type after accounting for Veterans' sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, contact risk, and reasons for contact.

Method: A retrospective cohort study of VCL phone and text contacts regarding identified VHA enrollees between 2016 and 2021 was performed. To examine differences in contact resolution between contact types, inverse probability of treatment weights were used to balance characteristics of text and phone contacts.

Results: Relative to phone contacts, text contacts were associated with 3.39 percentage point (PP) (95% CI, 3.27-3.50; p < 0.001) lower likelihood of receiving an emergency dispatch/welfare check, 2.65 PP (95% CI, 2.55-2.76; p < 0.001) lower likelihood of requiring arrangement for same-day care, and 9.47 (95% CI, 9.34-9.59; p < 0.001) PP higher likelihood of being terminated by the user.

Conclusions: VCL text contact was associated with an increased likelihood of being terminated by the user. Further investigation is needed to understand the reasons for terminating contact for those who texted VCL.