Ramchand, R. et al. (2025, April 16).
RAND.
Preventing veteran suicide is a national priority for government, veteran advocacy groups, and the private sector. This attention has led many individuals and organizations to leverage their expertise to create, expand, or promote activities that they hope will prevent future deaths. While the number and array of diverse approaches reflect a nation committed to a common goal, they also can create confusion. Advances in technology also generate questions about the future of veteran suicide prevention.
In this report, the authors analyze current and emerging activities to prevent veteran suicide. They introduce the RAND Suicide Prevention Activity Matrix, a framework that organizes current approaches, how they complement each other, how they might change, their evidence for preventing veteran suicide, and why they might (or might not) work. This framework places 26 categories of activities in a matrix based on whom the activity targets (the veteran directly, those who regularly interact with the veteran, or social influences) and what the activity is intended to accomplish (address social conditions, promote general well-being, address mental health symptoms, provide mental health supports, and prevent suicide crises). Entities committed to preventing veteran suicide and seeking to design evidence-informed, comprehensive suicide prevention strategies will benefit from the framework and evidence reviewed in this report, in addition to the recommendations the authors developed from these data.
Key Findings
- The authors identified 307 suicide prevention programs, 156 of which were currently operating and 226 that were proposed to expand existing services or initiate new programs.
- These organizations' suicide prevention activities were categorized across 26 suicide prevention activity categories and organized into the RAND Suicide Prevention Activity Matrix.
- Among the 156 current programs, there is a strong focus on those that aim to build social connections and those that offer case management or noncrisis psychological counseling.
- Veterans are the primary focus of most current programs, but many programs are also offered to family members and friends — often in addition to serving veterans directly.
- Nonprofit organizations operate most current programs, and just under half of the programs are accessed virtually or via a combination of in-person and virtual access.
- Among the 226 proposed programs, the most common types are multifunctional digital health platforms (mobile health applications), suicide risk assessment tools, and real-time monitoring.
- The following activity types have a robust evidence base for preventing suicide: community-based suicide prevention initiatives, suicide risk assessment, noncrisis psychological treatment, crisis psychological clinical services, and pharmacotherapy (for those with mental health conditions).
Recommendations
- Organizations charged with developing, investing in, implementing, or evaluating comprehensive suicide prevention strategies should prioritize implementation of evidence-based prevention activities.
- When implementing a suicide prevention activity, organizations should consider the context in which the activity is intended to be delivered.
- Organizations should conduct a needs assessment to identify gaps in suicide prevention activities.
- Organizations should apply different thresholds of evidence when considering different suicide prevention activities.
- Organizations should invest strategically in research that can fill notable gaps in knowledge.
