The Evidence Behind Mini-Interventions

In Respond, Treatments and Mini-Interventions focus on immediately accessible evidence-based interventions that can provide real relief for people in suicidal crisis and distress.

The SafeSide Framework puts this before safety planning as a reminder that we are working toward recovery and not just making plans to avert the next crisis. 

So, what are treatments and mini-interventions? 

• Treatments are suicide-specific, evidence-based therapies such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Mini-interventions are tactics, phrases, or small actions pulled from evidence-based treatment programs and used in any setting to convey empathy or offer a new way of thinking.

Keep in mind that the framework is treatment-agnostic, so all treatments that target drivers such as feelings of burdensomeness and isolation or that seek to give reasons for living through building a sense of hope or meaningfulness are compatible with the framework.

For example, the mini-intervention, "highlight the desire behind the suicidal desire," draws from providing an understanding of suicidal behaviour, which sees suicidal thinking and behaviour as a person’s attempt to escape overwhelming emotional distress (O’Connor and Kirtley, 2018 & Linehan, 2020). 

When we help someone identify that their desire to die relates to their desire for relief, peace, or connection, it:

• Reduces isolation and thwarted belongingness by normalising these fundamental needs
• Creates cognitive alternatives that may interrupt the transition from entrapment to suicidal behavior
• Strengthens therapeutic alliance by demonstrating deep empathic understanding, which itself serves as a protective factor.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to take a deeper look at three mini-interventions and how they can be used.