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NCT Number: NCT07730307

Disclosure, Social Harm, and Support Activation Study

To characterize how disclosure of suicide or severe emotional distress functions socially in rural eastern Uganda: who people have disclosed to, what happened, what harms resulted, who they would want involved in future support, and under what conditions they would want support activated on their behalf.

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Key information

Conditions

Mental Illness Mental Disorders Suicidal

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Observational

Primary location

Empower to Heal- Uganda

Mpunde, Buyende District, Uganda

Location status: Recruiting

Location contact

Rauben Kazungu, B.A.

CONTACT

[email protected]

About this study

This study aims to understand how disclosing suicidal thoughts or severe emotional distress leads to either social support or social harm in rural eastern Uganda, and to identify how support can be activated safely and according to individuals' preferences. Using a cross-sectional mixed-methods design, researchers will administer structured surveys to 80-100 adults with lived experience of suicidality or severe distress and conduct 20-30 in-depth interviews with participants representing helpful, harmful or forced, mixed, and non-disclosure experiences. The study will examine disclosure pathways, adverse social consequences, preferred support persons, acceptable conditions for contacting others, and willingness to undergo suicide screening, with safeguarding procedures integrated throughout data collection

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Meets at least one of the following:
  • self-reports a history of suicidal ideation or attempt,
  • self-reports a period of severe depressive distress (persistent sadness, hopelessness, withdrawal lasting ≥2 weeks), or
  • has previously disclosed suicidal thoughts or severe distress to another person
  • Able and willing to provide informed consent

Exclusion criteria

  • Currently in acute suicidal crisis with intent or plan (activate safeguarding protocol, defer enrollment to after stabilization)
  • Unable to engage in a 25-30 minute survey without significant distress

Treatment and study plan

Survey questionnaire

Other

Survey capturing disclosure history (who was told, when, why, how), disclosure outcomes (what happened, what harms resulted), disclosure comfort (willingness to tell specific people under specific conditions), social harm inventory (lifetime and recent harms following disclosure), preferred support persons and conditions for activation, and willingness to be screened

Primary outcomes

  1. Social Harm Inventory

    Time frame: Through 60 minute survey and interview

    A 10-item inventory of adverse social harms experienced after disclosure: family anger/punishment, community gossip, police involvement, confinement/restraint, forced traditional healing, loss of employment or income, relationship termination, public humiliation, unwanted religious intervention, and other. Each endorsed item rated on a likert scale for severity (mild, moderate, severe) and recency (past month, past year, over a year ago). These likert scales maybe be interpreted numerically (1-mild, 2- moderate, 3- severe and 1-over a year ago, 2- past year, 3- past month) with a higher score indicating higher severity and recency of each of the measured social harms. Scores range from 1 to 3 on each severity and recency scale.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Disclosure Comfort

    Time frame: Through 60 min Interview and survey period

    Willingness to disclose suicidal thoughts or severe distress to each of 9 potential support persons (spouse, parent, sibling, close friend, religious leader, CHW, health worker, traditional healer, employer/teacher) rated on a 4-point scale (1-definitely would, 2- might, 3- probably not, 4- definitely not). Scores on this Likert Scale range from 1-4 with lower scores indicating high comfort disclosing to a sub-group of support persons and higher scores indicating low comfort of disclosure.

  2. Support Activation Preferences

    Time frame: Through 60 minute interview and survey period

    The core Connection Prescription module. For each potential support person, participants indicate: (a) whether they would want that person contacted if they were in crisis, (b) under what conditions (only with my permission, if I'm in danger, anytime), (c) what they would want that person to do (listen, stay with me, take me to clinic, pray with me, nothing), and (d) who should NEVER be told. This directly parameterizes the Connection Prescription. Question (a) is a discrete choice response with yes scored as '1' and no scored as '0'. TQuestion (b) is rated on a likert scale ranging 1-3 with 1 indicating more consistent comfort with supporter activation and 3 indicating activation in only particular circumstances. Question (c) will allow participants to select mutli-items form the scale and question (d) will allow participants to fill in the blank thus not being scored.

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Yang Jae Lee, MD

CONTACT

[email protected]

7066919813

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Yale University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Disclosure, Social Harm, and Support Activation Study:How Disclosure of Suicidality and Severe Emotional Distress Functions Socially in Rural Eastern Uganda

Important dates

Study start
2026
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Jul 28, 2026
Registry last updated
Jul 28, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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