Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Conditions
Keywords
suicide, digital health, lethal means restriction
Brief summary
The goal of the study is to determine effectiveness of a behaviorally informed text messaging intervention to help parents increase safety practices and reduce their teens' access to lethal means following a suicide-related emergency department visit.
Detailed description
This study tests a text messaging program that helps parents keep their teens safe after a visit to the emergency department for suicidal thoughts or behavior. Adolescents face a higher risk of suicide after leaving the emergency department, and limiting access to lethal means such as firearms, medications, or other dangerous items can help prevent suicide. The investigators invite parents and their teens aged 12 to 17 who visit the emergency department at Children's Medical Center Dallas for suicide-related reasons to join the study. After enrolling, families will be randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group receives usual care, which includes standard counseling about keeping teens safe in the emergency room and no study text messages. The second group receives direct text messages three times a week with reminders about safety reminders. The third group receives risk-framing text messages three times a week, which include safety reminders and information about suicide risk following an emergency room visit to motivate parents to take action. The study measures whether these text messages help parents follow safety recommendations at home. Parents and teens complete short surveys at the start of the study, six weeks later, and twelve weeks later. The study also tracks whether the teen returns to the emergency department or attempts suicide again. The study aims to determine if text messages can increase parental safety practices, reduce teens' access to lethal means, and prevent future suicide attempts. UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Health Dallas conduct the study. Messages are delivered through a secure, HIPAA-compliant virtual platform to ensure privacy.
Interventions
OTHERText-messaging for safety reminders
The intervention consists of thrice-weekly, behaviorally informed text messages delivered to parents over six weeks period.
OTHERText-messaging with safety reminders and risk framing
Thrice-weekly messages incorporating safety precautions and evidence-based suicide risk statistics to recalibrate parental risk perception.
Sponsors
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
The Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (TCMHCC)
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Masking description
The person analyzing the data will be blinded to group assignments.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
13 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Guardian must be able and willing to provide informed consent, and the participant must be able and willing to provide assent. * Parent and adolescent willingness and ability to participate in study procedures and complete assessments at baseline, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks. * Presentation to the ED for a suicide-related emergency, defined as suicidal ideation within the last 2 weeks or a suicide attempt within the past month. * Adolescents aged 12-17 years during the consent. * Access to a mobile phone with text messaging capability for the parent/legal guardian. * Ability to communicate in English.
Exclusion criteria
* Absence of a legal guardian capable of providing consent. * Parents/legal guardians without access to a mobile phone with texting capability. * Inability to communicate in English. * Adolescents in state custody or under legal restrictions that prevent study participation. * Adolescents involved in the justice system in a manner that would interfere with study participation. * Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder or intellectual development disorder needing substantial or very substantial support
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Parent-reported adherence to lethal means restriction (LMR) | Baseline to 6 weeks | Change in parental adherence to lethal means restriction practices will be assessed using the Parent Adherence to Lethal Means Restriction (PA-LMR), a structured parent-report survey measuring adherence to multiple lethal means restriction behaviors. Items are rated on a Likert scale, with total scores ranging from 11 to 55; higher scores indicate greater adherence. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Adolescent Perceived Access to Lethal Means | Baseline to 6 weeks | Perceived Access to Lethal Means is a self-report measure assessing adolescents' perceptions of their access to potentially lethal methods. Items assess the perceived ease of access, with total scores ranging from 5 to 30; higher scores indicate greater perceived access to lethal means. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
CONTACTMatthew Nguyen
CONTACTAmy Conger
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOREmine Rabia Ayvaci, MD
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Outcome results
None listed