Impact of applied suicide intervention skills training on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 45(2) of Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior (see record [rid]2015-15165-007[/rid]). In the original article, two in-text citations were inadvertently transposed. On page 679, the dynamic waitlist design for randomized trials should have been attributed to Hendricks Brown, et al. (2006), and not to Gregory Brown, et al. (2005). On page 688, cognitive therapy interventions for preventing suicide attempts should have been attributed to Gregory Brown, et al. (2005), and not to Hendricks Brown, et al. (2006). The corrections are present in the erratum.] We examined the impact of the implementation of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) across the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s national network of crisis hotlines. Data were derived from 1,507 monitored calls from 1,410 suicidal individuals to 17 Lifeline centers in 2008–2009. Callers were significantly more likely to feel less depressed, less suicidal, less overwhelmed, and more hopeful by the end of calls handled by ASIST-trained counselors. Few significant changes in ASIST-trained counselors’ interventions emerged; however, improvements in callers’ outcomes were linked to ASIST-related counselor interventions, including exploring reasons for living and informal support contacts. ASIST training did not yield more comprehensive suicide risk assessments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)