Project Safe Guard-Trauma

The primary endpoint is the improvement in actual secure firearm storage practices, as measured at the 6-month follow-up assessment, compared with baseline. The firearm storage assessment includes a grid question asking whether personally owned firearms are locked or unloaded-indicating secure storage practices. Participants can indicate that "none," "some," or "all" of their firearms are in an unloaded or locked condition.

We assign a score of 2 if the secure practice applies to all firearms, 1 if it applies to some firearms, and 0 if it applies to none. A higher score corresponds to more secure storage practices. The maximum score, achieved when all firearms are both unloaded and locked, is 4, while the minimum score is 0. Improvement will be defined as a change score > 0 between the pre-intervention and 6-month follow-up assessments.

Participants will be asked, "To what extent do you think owning a firearm is related to suicide risk?" and "To what extent do you think how a firearm is stored (e.g., unlocked, loaded) is related to suicide risk?" Responses are captured on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all, 2= Slightly, 3 = Moderately, 4 = Strongly, 5 = Extremely).

Participants will be asked: (a) "How likely would you be to adhere to your clinician's recommendations to store your firearm locked for safety purposes?" and (b) "How likely would you be to adhere to your clinician's recommendations to store your firearm unloaded for safety purposes?" Responses are captured on a 5-point scale (1 = Very Unlikely, 2 = Unlikely, 3 = Neutral/Possibly, 4 = Likely, 5 = Very Likely).

Posttraumatic stress disorder-related negative cognitions about the world will be evaluated using the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI). The PTCI is a 33-item self-report measure of negative cognitions about the self and world and self-blame. Respondents rate the degree to which they agree or disagree with each statement on a 7-point scale (1 = Totally disagree, 2 = Disagree very much, 3 = Disagree slightly, 4 = Neither agree nor disagree, 5 = Agree slightly, 6 = Agree very much, 7 = Totally agree). We will use the total score of the 7-item PTCI negative-world subscale to measure the purported mediator of change of Project Safe Guard-Trauma

Participant acceptability of services will be evaluated using the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8), an 8-item self-report measure. Each item evaluated using varying descriptive scales with corresponding numerical values. Scores are summed across items, with higher values indicating greater acceptability of the services received.

PTSD symptoms will be evaluated using the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), a 20-item self-report measure. Participants rate the severity of each symptom over the past month on a 5-point scale (0 =Not at all, 1 = A little bit, 2 = Moderately, 3 = Quite a bit, 4 = Extremely). A composite score is generated from responses with symptom cluster scores corresponding to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria (i.e., intrusions, avoidance, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, hyperarousal); higher scores reflect more severe PTSD symptomatology.

Suicidal ideation severity over the past 2 weeks will be evaluated using the Depressive Symptom Index-Suicidality Subscale (DSI-SS), a 4-item self-report measure. Respondents rate each item on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 to 3 (e.g., Item 1: 0 = I do not have thoughts of killing myself; 1 = Sometimes I have thoughts of killing myself; 2 = Most of the time I have thoughts of killing myself; 3 = I always have thoughts of killing myself). A total score ranging from 0 to 12 is calculated from summed responses, with higher scores indicating more severe suicidal ideation.

The self-report SITBI-R assesses various aspects of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. The evaluation measures will only include the questions about the lifetime occurrence of the target construct (e.g., the suicidal ideation module asks respondents, "Have you ever had thoughts of killing yourself?").