Implementing a Brief Suicide Intervention for High Risk Youth With Front-Line Juvenile Justice Staff

Suicide and suicidal behaviors among youth in the United States represents a significant public health problem. Youth involved in the juvenile justice system have a greater burden of risk factors associated with suicide ideation and behaviors as compared to their non-justice involved peers, placing these youth at greater risk for suicide. Thus, the overall goal of this Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) is to support the applicant in developing the skills to launch an independent research program focused on the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions for court-involved non-incarcerated (CINI) youth involved in the juvenile justice system to reduce psychiatric morbidity. Specific training goals are: (1) engage in intensive clinical and research training to increase my expertise in conducting brief interventions for adolescent suicide, (2) develop expertise in dissemination and implementation strategies and research in the juvenile justice system, (3) achieve skills in mixed-method research methodology including design and analysis of studies to support causal inference when randomization is not possible. The applicant will pursue these goals through a combination of mentoring, didactics, and practical experience. Specific training goals for this 5-year-period will be achieved under the mentorship of Drs. Anthony Spirito (Brown University), Marina Tolou-Shams (UCSF), Gina Vincent (UMASS Medical School), and Peter Friedmann (Baystate Health). The objective of the proposed research study is to 1) identify individual-, administrative-, and system-level factors that promote or hinder uptake of a brief suicide intervention conducted by front-line juvenile justice staff with CINI youth and 2) implement an evidence-based brief intervention, safety planning, for suicidal CINI youth and evaluate its utility with these youth. In the Treatment Adaptation phase, 12 juvenile justice stakeholders will be interviewed pre- and post-intervention implementation, as well as 24 youth and 24 caregivers 3-months post-intervention, about the acceptability of the brief intervention in the juvenile court setting. In the Treatment Trial phase, we will examine the effectiveness of a safety planning intervention for indicated suicidal youth in reducing suicidal ideation, in reducing suicidal events (suicide attempts as well as emergency evaluations and psychiatric hospitalizations for suicidality), increased engagement in outpatient mental health treatment, and improved youth motivation for treatment. CINI juveniles, ages 12-17, (N=100 for baseline (historical control) cohort; N=100 for efficacy trial; N=100 for alternative causal design) and a caregiver will be recruited from the juvenile court to participate in the current study. CINI juveniles in the efficacy trial will receive the evidenced-based brief suicide intervention as part of standard of care and will be compared to historical control and alternative causal design. Baseline data will be collected as part of routine care. Youth and a caregiver will be re-assessed at 3 months subsequent to the juvenile's initial court appointment.