Abstract
BACKGROUND: More than half of people experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors may never disclose their experiences to another person. Veterans are more likely to die by suicide than their civilian counterparts and report barriers to disclosure of suicidal thoughts and behaviors during screenings. While studies of veteran and service member perspectives offer recommendations to facilitate disclosure, little is known about clinician perspectives and strategies. OBJECTIVE: Describe clinician perspectives on non-disclosure among military-affiliated clients and strategies to address potential non-disclosure in this at-risk population. DESIGN: Qualitative analysis of transcript summaries from semi-structured interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Seventeen clinicians serving military and veteran clients participated. Professional backgrounds and credentials were diverse, with 71% having 5 or more years of clinical experience. Roughly half of the participants treated clients with suicidal ideation three or more times per week. APPROACH: Interviews focused on clinicians' approaches and decision-making processes during suicide risk stratification and treatment planning, including barriers and facilitators. This paper focuses on identified challenges of non-disclosure. Transcripts were analyzed using rapid qualitative analysis. KEY RESULTS: Clinicians described their experiences with non-disclosure of suicidal ideation among military-affiliated clients, including perspectives on disclosure barriers and communication strategies used to facilitate disclosure. When discussing the challenge of non-disclosure clinicians reported (1) experiencing guardedness and non-disclosure among their clients, and (2) perceiving stigma and fear of negative consequences as disclosure barriers. Based on these experiences, clinicians modified their approaches to suicide risk assessment to facilitate disclosure by (1) normalizing suicidal thoughts and behaviors as safe topics, (2) educating clients to address fears, (3) collaborating with clients to promote acceptance of safe firearm storage, and (4) deliberately using standardized measures to overcome disclosure challenges. CONCLUSIONS: Proactively implementing communication strategies that address perceived barriers to disclosure of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among military-affiliated psychotherapy clients may facilitate disclosure.