Social Connections and Late Life Suicide

With the long-term goal of improving interventions for late-life suicide, the purpose of
this study is to examine whether a mechanism by which behavioral interventions reduce risk
for late-life suicide is by increasing social connectedness. The investigators propose to
examine whether a manualized intervention that targets connectedness--ENGAGE--increases
connectedness in older adults who report clinically significant depression and
disconnectedness—operationalized as feeling lonely and/or like a burden on others. The
investigators propose a randomized controlled trial comparing the ENGAGE intervention with
care-as-usual (CAU), using n=100 primary care patients aged ≥ 60 years who report social
disconnectedness (i.e., loneliness or burdensomeness) and either Minor or Major Depression.
At baseline, 3-week, 6-week and 10-week assessments, subjects will report on social
connectedness, depression, and suicide risk. The investigators hypothesize that those
subjects assigned to ENGAGE will report greater increases in connectedness—measured as
greater belongingness and lower burdensomeness—compared to CAU; that ENGAGE will produce
greater reductions in depression and suicide ideation than CAU; and that changes in
depression will be accounted for changes in social connectedness.