Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-26-2025

Publication Title

Injury Epidemiology

Abstract

Background: Firearms are involved in more than 70% of U.S. Veteran suicides. Caregivers, defined as family members or concerned significant others, can play an important role in firearm suicide prevention through initiating conversations about secure firearm storage with Veterans. Our objective was to explore caregivers’ experiences with lethal means safety (LMS) conversations and identify perceived barriers to caregivers discussing LMS with healthcare providers and with Veterans. Methods: We conducted focus groups with 32 caregivers with experience caring for a Veteran at risk for suicide. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: We identified three primary themes: 1) caregivers recognize and endorse the importance of having conversations about secure firearm storage to prevent suicide, 2) despite this, caregivers described barriers to discussing lethal means safety both with healthcare providers and with Veterans, and 3) caregivers suggested strategies to improve their involvement in LMS planning in clinical settings and to support their ability to initiate LMS discussions with Veterans. Conclusions: Providing additional training for healthcare providers and ensuring availability of caregiver-focused LMS resources could be key to increasing caregiver involvement in LMS planning and improving caregivers’ role in reducing access to firearms for Veterans at risk of dying by suicide.

PubMed ID

41013859

Volume

12

Issue

1

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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