Participatory Research for Suicide Prevention in Autism

January 23, 2026 updated by: Anne Kirby, University of Utah

The goal of this study is to pilot test a new educational intervention for organization members focused on suicide prevention for autistic people. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Does participating in the intervention increase participants' knowledge, skills, and actions to support suicide prevention for autistic people?
  • What feedback do participants have to help improve the intervention?

Participants will:

  • engage in a four-part virtual educational intervention
  • answer questions via online survey before, after, and 3-months after the intervention
  • participate in an optional interview to provide feedback

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study will pilot test a new four-part virtual educational intervention called Forming Love around Autistic People to Prevent Suicide (FLAPS).

Participants will be active members of an organization (e.g., paid employee, volunteer, stakeholder) whose work impacts autistic people. They will participate in four virtual educational sessions led by trained facilitators.

The educational intervention will provide current research evidence and community-informed information about suicide risk and prevention, and engage participants in active discussions to expand their knowledge and skills as well as to promote action planning to support suicide prevention for autistic people in their community.

Participants will provide demographic and descriptive information and complete the Steps Toward Prevention (Autism Community Suicide Prevention) measure at three time-points (Pre-intervention, post-intervention [approximately 2 months after baseline], and 3-months after intervention). The Steps Toward Prevention (Autism Community Suicide Prevention) measure will assess participants' knowledge, skills, and actions to support suicide prevention for autistic people. They will also be provided an option to complete a short interview to provide feedback about the FLAPS intervention.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

51

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Utah
      • Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, 84108
        • University of Utah

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Active member of an organization whose work impacts autistic people
  • Age 18+
  • Fluent English language to participate in virtual educational intervention

Exclusion Criteria:

  • No access to an internet-connected device
  • Unable to participate in a virtual educational intervention

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: FLAPS intervention
Participants receiving FLAPS intervention
Behavioral: Forming Love around Autistic People to Prevent Suicide
Four-part virtual educational intervention
Other Names:
  • FLAPS

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Steps Toward Prevention - Autism Community Suicide Prevention: Knowledge & Capacity
Time Frame: Pre-intervention, post-intervention (approximately 2 months after baseline), and 3-months after intervention
Self-report measure of knowledge, skills, and actions to support suicide prevention for autistic people. This reported data is for the Knowledge & Capacity scale of the Steps Toward Prevention - Autism Community Suicide Prevention measure. This scale inquires about how true eight statements are for the respondent currently on a 5-point scale (Definitely not true - Definitely true). Scores are averaged across the items (1-5 possible range). Higher numbers indicate greater knowledge and capacity for suicide prevention.
Pre-intervention, post-intervention (approximately 2 months after baseline), and 3-months after intervention
Steps Toward Prevention - Autism Community Suicide Prevention: Actions
Time Frame: Pre-intervention, post-intervention (approximately 2 months after baseline), and 3-months after intervention
Self-report measure of knowledge, skills, and actions to support suicide prevention for autistic people. This reported data is for the Actions scale of the Steps Toward Prevention - Autism Community Suicide Prevention measure. This inquires about how often the respondent has done twelve types of actions in the past month on a 5-point scale (Never - More than once a week). Scores are averaged across the items (1-5 possible range). Higher numbers indicate greater engagement in actions for suicide prevention.
Pre-intervention, post-intervention (approximately 2 months after baseline), and 3-months after intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Qualitative Interview
Time Frame: Post intervention (approximately 2 months after baseline)
Open-ended interview questions to understand additional outcomes that participants experienced that they attribute to the intervention.
Post intervention (approximately 2 months after baseline)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Utah

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Anne V Kirby, PhD, University of Utah

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

September 5, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 5, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

August 5, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 7, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 9, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

August 14, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 26, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 23, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 00139671
  • K23MH123934 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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