Advancing Suicide Intervention Strategies for Teens During High Risk Periods

SPI is focused on how the risk of suicidal crisis waxes and wanes over time. At times of heightened risk, a pre-specified and individualized plan targets the internal warning signs that become the cue to use the safety plan. SPI+ strategies focus on patient's narrative of the suicidal crisis and identifying solutions that are antithetical to progressing in a suicidal crisis. The brief structured intervention is conducted in six key steps. Youth in this condition will be offered weekly follow-up, with a minimum of 4 sessions and a maximum of 8 sessions. The goal is to create a crisis response plan to reduce risk when suicidal crises emerge. With adolescents, SPI+ consists of an individual session to elicit crisis narrative and motivation to utilize the safety plan through psychoeducation and follows six steps to achieve the adolescent's goals and return to safety when suicidal urges are high.

CAMS strategies focus on collaborative deconstruction and treatment of the patient-defined drivers- the problems that make suicide compelling to the patient- and utilizes these problem-focused treatment sessions to treat the drivers as directly related to wish to die. Participants will be assigned to CAMS for a minimum of 4 sessions and a maximum of eight sessions. This time frame, based on initial data from our pilot work with adolescents and emerging adults (18-25), suggests that a subset of participants resolve their STB in six to eight sessions. CAMS is a clinical intervention designed to modify how clinicians engage, assess and plan treatment with suicidal patients.

Participants in this group will be studied as they proceed through treatment in the acute care setting and follow the intervention plan laid out in the discharge summary, per usual protocols at each facility. In both settings, the elements of typical care include crisis prevention planning, which outlines potential triggers, skills to use, and people and places to call in crisis, as well as referral to ongoing behavioral health treatment. We will not alter usual care but track recommendations, contacts and care through questionnaires the family completes as well as medical record review in order to understand the impact of the experimental conditions in relation to typical services.