A Pilot study of Psychological First Aid for Suicide Loss Survivors in Medical Examiner/Coroners Offices

In her role as mentor, Dr. Cerel will meet monthly with Dr. Athey. These meetings will be utilized to review progress in conducting the study. I will also be available for Dr. Athey for clinical consultation calls, texts and emails as she interacts with suicide loss survivors and delivers Psychological First Aid. . I will assist as she develops an application to the NIMH Implementation Research Institute, and presents at the IASR/AFSP International Summit on Suicide Research. I will also work with Dr. Athey to create a network of connections with other suicide postvention researchers and will support her as she cultivates skills in the post-award grant management that she initially developed through an AFSP pilot award. Dr. Athey will provide me copies of IRB materials and approvals, as well as progress reports via email. We will discuss the study start date and progress in completing study aims during monthly meetings. We will develop contingency plans should Dr. Athey experience delays in reaching recruitment goals. For example, we will utilize my network of suicide postvention researchers and practitioners to identify other recruitment sources for the qualitative interviews proposed in Aim 1 of the study. We will discuss snowball recruitment methods and other strategies for engaging suicide loss survivors if recruitment is low for the second study aim. Administrators at Johns Hopkins will prepare bi-annual financial reports. Dr. Athey and I will review these reports together during monthly mentorship meetings. I will also attend the “project kickoff meeting” and “project wrap up meeting”, virtual meetings conducted by Johns Hopkins at the start and end of all funded projects. These meetings will bring together Johns Hopkins grants managers and administrators, Dr. Athey, and myself to identify and discuss financial and administrative grant considerations. Dr. Athey will provide me with a draft version of the final report for review before this meeting and we will discuss any changes at the “project wrap up meeting.”