Adolescent and Child Suicide Prevention in Routine Clinical Encounters

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Suicide

Interventions: Behavioral: Nudge+
Behavioral: Nudge

Registration Number: NCT04844021

Lead Sponsor: Northwestern University

Brief Summary: The objective of this study is to compare two approaches to implement an evidence-based firearm safety promotion program, S.A.F.E. Firearm, in pediatric primary care as a universal suicide prevention strategy. The first implementation approach is a prompt in the electronic health record (EHR; Nudge) reminding clinicians to a) discuss firearm storage and b) offer a free cable firearm lock during the pediatric well visit. The second implementation approach (Nudge+) includes both the EHR Nudge described above plus one year of support to the clinics in deploying the program (i.e., practice facilitation). The study also aims to identify how these strategies work and whether the S.A.F.E. Firearm program results in reduced unauthorized access to firearms by young people. The investigators hypothesize that a greater proportion of well-visits will have S.A.F.E. Firearm delivery documented in the electronic health record in Nudge+ clinics vs. Nudge clinics.

Detailed Description: The investigators will conduct a hybrid type III effectiveness-implementation trial using a longitudinal cluster randomized design to test the most effective way to implement S.A.F.E. Firearm among 30 clinics, 158 clinicians, and 48,475 youth nested in two Mental Health Research Network (MHRN) health systems in Michigan and Colorado. Clinics will be randomized to receive either the EHR implementation strategy (Nudge) or the EHR implementation strategy plus 1 year of facilitation to target implementation barriers (Nudge+).

Aim 1: Examine the effects of Nudge vs. Nudge+ on implementation outcomes.

* Reach: The investigators hypothesize that clinician-documented program delivery in the EHR (reach; primary outcome) will be superior in the Nudge+ condition compared to Nudge in the active and sustainment periods.

* Fidelity: The investigators hypothesize that parent-reported clinician fidelity to the program will be superior in the Nudge+ condition compared to Nudge in the active and sustainment periods.

* Cost: The investigators will also assess implementation strategy cost.

* Cable Locks/Acceptability: The investigators hypothesize that the Nudge+ condition will result in increased rates of cable lock distribution and higher acceptability compared with Nudge in both the active and sustainment periods.

Aim 2: Use mixed methods to identify implementation strategy mechanisms. The investigators hypothesize that Nudge+ will have a stronger effect because it will improve clinic adaptive reserve (i.e., the ability to make and sustain change). The investigators will also investigate the role of clinician motivation. The investigators hypothesize that clinician attitudes towards firearm counseling, clinician burnout, and clinician demographics will moderate implementation strategy effectiveness.

Aim 3: Examine the effects of the adapted intervention on clinical outcomes. The investigators hypothesize that Nudge+ will result in a greater proportion of parents reporting that they made firearm(s) less accessible to their child(ren) compared with Nudge. The investigators will explore rates of youth suicide attempts, deaths, and unintentional firearm injury and mortality by implementation condition and across time.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 47307

Inclusion Criteria

Parents

Parents and/or legal guardians (hereafter referred to as parents) at participating pediatric clinics who have a child age 5-17 who attends a well visit. At least one parent must attend the well visit to be eligible. The parent must be at least 18 years old to participate.

Exclusion Criteria

Parents

Due to translation costs and challenges of recruiting non-US resident participants, respectively, non-English speaking parents and non-US resident parents will not be eligible to participate at Henry Ford Health System.

Inclusion Criteria: Clinicians and leaders

Pediatric physicians and non-physician clinicians (hereafter referred to as clinicians) employed within the participating pediatric clinics, as well as health system leaders employed within the two health systems, are eligible to participate. Family medicine clinicians who see pediatric patients in participating clinics at Kaiser Permanente Colorado will also be eligible.

Exclusion criteria: Clinicians and leaders

At Kaiser Permanente Colorado, family medicine clinicians whose patient panel is comprised of fewer than 5% pediatric patients will be excluded.
Family medicine clinicians who see pediatric patients in participating clinics at Henry Ford Health System will be excluded.

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Nudge+	Nudge+	This arm consists of Nudge as described above, as well as facilitation. Facilitation (i.e., external support delivered by health system employees not employed within the clinic site) will be offered for 12 months to each clinic, in keeping with other implementation trials. The investigators will use a train-the-trainer model to train facilitators at both health systems to ensure they achieve facilitator core competencies with an eye toward implementation of S.A.F.E. Firearm. The role of the facilitator is to engage with study clinics, to assist each clinic in setting change and performance goals around the implementation of S.A.F.E. Firearm, and to troubleshoot implementation barriers.
Nudge	Nudge	Clinics randomized to the Nudge condition will receive the EHR prompt only. The investigators will add default language to the standard Well Child Visit workflow to serve as a reminder and allow for tracking of S.A.F.E. Firearm implementation. The clinician will be asked to denote whether the program was delivered (e.g., whether conversation around firearm storage was conducted, whether cable firearm lock was offered) to the parent during the visit. This EHR prompt will remain turned "on" from active implementation through the sustainment period.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Reach	EHR data on reach will be extracted for the time period: the beginning of the active implementation period through the end of the active implementation period (12 months total)	Reach is the proportion of eligible well-child visits who received the S.A.F.E. Firearm program. "Participants" refers to well-child visits. For each well-child visit, data regarding S.A.F.E. Firearm delivery were available in the form of binary indicators, with 1 indicating S.A.F.E. Firearm was delivered during the visit and 0 indicating S.A.F.E. Firearm was not delivered during the visit. Reach outcomes presented below are means of the binary indicators, which were calculated across all eligible well-child visits.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Parent-reported Acceptability	Parent surveys will be collected from parents within two weeks of well-child visit from pre-implementation through sustainment (30 months total)	Parent-report of acceptability of the S.A.F.E. Firearm program. Parents will be asked to answer questions pertaining to the acceptability of program components. Specifically, they will answer yes/no questions developed by the research team which ask whether they found the component acceptable.
Cost	Cost data will be collected from pre-implementation through sustainment (30 months total)	Cost of the implementation strategies (EHR nudge, facilitation) and the S.A.F.E. Firearm program delivery. Data on the cost of implementing the program (e.g., costs for printing program materials and distributing firearm locks) and the implementation strategies (e.g., facilitator full-time equivalent \[FTE\] time) will be collected to estimate the overall cost of the program and implementation strategy delivery.
Fidelity	surveys collected from parents within two weeks of well-child visit. Surveys will be collected during the duration of the pre-implementation, active implementation, and sustainment phases (30 months total)	Whether the clinician followed the two S.A.F.E. Firearm steps (counseling and offering cable lock), measured via parent-report
Distribution of Cable Locks	Cable lock distribution data will be collected from active implementation through sustainment (24 months total)	Number of cable locks distributed by each clinic will be collected
Clinician-reported Acceptability	Clinician surveys will be collected at two time points during the study period: during pre-implementation (surveys will be administered for approximately 1 month) and during active implementation (surveys will be administered for approximately 1 month)	Clinician-report of acceptability of the S.A.F.E. Firearm program. Acceptability of the implementation strategies - EHR nudge and facilitation - will be collected from clinicians as well. Clinicians will be asked questions developed by the research team about whether they found various components of the program and implementation strategies acceptable, and will answer each question with a Likert-scaled answer.