Testing Family Firearm Secure Storage Training (FFAST) to Prevent Suicide

Conditions

• Brief Intervention
• Concern Significant Others
• Lethal Means Safety

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - 80 Years

Healthy Volunteers

Accepted

Interventions

• The Family Firearms Secure storage Training (FFAST) Intervention — BEHAVIORAL
  The intervention consists of a brief, single-session intervention where a Veteran and their CSO work together to create a secure storage plan for firearms in the home in the event the Veteran experiences a mental health crisis, and how the CSO can support the Veteran during a crisis. This intervention can be used by any Veteran who owns firearms, and neither the Veteran nor CSO need to be experiencing mental health symptoms to participate. The intervention serves as an upstream method of suicide prevention that can be delivered in-person, through a telehealth appointment, or over the phone.
• Health and Stress Counseling — BEHAVIORAL
  HSC is a brief intervention where Veterans and their CSOs meet with an interventionist to learn how to support a Veteran's well-being. Areas include diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and other factors that may impact overall health.

Study Details

Firearms are the lethal means used in over 70% of Veteran suicides with rates of Veteran deaths via self-induced firearm injury rising dramatically (by 64.8%) from 2001 to 2022. Upstream, evidence-based lethal means safety interventions are urgently needed within the VA to address this serious issue. The Family Firearms Secure Storage Training (FFAST) intervention consists of single session in which Veterans and their concerned significant others (CSOs) are guided through a discussion on secure firearm storage practices and develop a safety plan to prepare them for a mental health crisis. This study aims to evaluate the relative effectiveness of FFAST against a control condition in promoting secure firearm storage planning, preparedness for a mental health crisis, and secure storage practices within Veterans and their CSOs. In addition, barriers and facilitating factors of implementing FFAST within the VA Caregiver Support Program and Suicide Prevention 2.0 will be examined to aid in the widespread adoption of FFAST across the VA.

Key Dates

First listed

Jul 9, 2026

Start date

Oct 1, 2026

Status verified

Jul 2026

Primary completion

Jun 30, 2030

Completion

Sep 30, 2030

Study Design

Enrollment

176 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

PREVENTION

Arms

• Experimental: The Family Firearms Secure storage Training (FFAST) Intervention
  FFAST is a brief, single-session intervention where Veterans collaborate with a family member or friend (referred to as a concerned significant other; CSO) to create a secure storage plan for firearms in the event they ever experience a mental health crisis.
• Active Comparator: Health and Stress Counseling (HSC)
  Participants will participate in an intervention similar in length and delivery of the experimental condition, however the intervention does not focus on lethal means safety, secure storage of firearms, or suicide prevention.
• No Intervention: Waitlist
  In the waitlist control condition, participants will be assigned to complete either FFAST or HSC 6-months after the start of the study. Their data for those 6 months will be compared to the intervention (FFAST) and the active control (HSC). This will allow researchers to compare the results of those who are assigned to either FFAST, HSC, or nothing, while still providing participants an active condition at a later time.

Primary Outcome Measure

Number of Participants With a Firearm Secure Storage Plan [ Time Frame: Baseline and 1, 3, and 6 months ]

Central Contacts

• Bryann B DeBeer, Ph.D.
  (254) 987-0341
  [email protected]
• Alexis Blessing, Ph.D.
  (720) 723-4808
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

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