Safety Planning in Juvenile Justice for Suicidal Youth

NCT03655470 | Completed Results DMC

• 2 other identifiers: 18040020131R34MH114307-01A1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 59
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

This study will examine the feasibility and acceptability of a program designed to conduct safety planning with youth in the juvenile justice system who are at risk for a suicide attempt and/or self-injury and to increase the possibility of them receiving outpatient mental health treatment. After training staff in the intervention, the investigators will pilot test the safety planning intervention and gather information on how well it worked on reducing self-harm, getting families to follow up with referrals for mental health care, and how often they attend treatment.

Conditions

Suicidal Ideation; Suicide, Attempted; Nonsuicidal Self-injury

Keywords

suicidal behavior; nonsuicidal self injury; adolescents

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in Suicidal Ideation

  Score on Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire; higher is worse; range 0 to180

  Past month ideation at 1 and 3 month follow-up points

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Suicide Attempts

  3 months

Study Arms (2)

Safety Planning

EXPERIMENTAL

This brief intervention, consists of an in-person and follow-up phone call that are based on cognitive behavioral principles designed to help identify a concrete list of coping strategies and social supports that youth can utilize preceding or during a crisis to lower imminent risk of nonsuicidal self-injury or suicidal behavior.

Behavioral: Safety Planning

Standard Care

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

If a teen has a positive screen for suicide risk, the Probation Officer completes a "secondary screener" built into the court screening instrument to determine whether there is concern of current and/or imminent risk. If a teen endorses nonsuicidal self-injury more than once in the prior year, then the Probation Officer asks about frequency and severity. If there is ongoing concern of risk for self-injurious behavior, then the Probation Officer arranges for a crisis evaluation in the Emergency Department. If the teen is not judged to be at imminent risk, the Probation Officer makes a referral back to the current treatment provider or to a community mental health clinic. In either case, the parents and youth receive a packet with mental health resources

Behavioral: Standard care

Interventions

Safety Planning BEHAVIORAL

Safety planning is an individual coping intervention to reduce suicidal risk in adolescents

Safety Planning

Standard care BEHAVIORAL

Standard care entails sending an adolescent for an emergency evaluation for suicidal risk in an Emergency Department

Standard Care

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 12 Years - 18 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Legal guardian available to consent for juvenile's participation
• Juvenile and parents are English or Spanish speaking
• Juvenile flags in on the screening measure used in court with respect to suicidal ideation or nonsuicidal self-injury.

You may not qualify if:

• None

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Brown University: lead
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): collaborator
• The Miriam Hospital: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

Rhode Island Family Court

Providence, Rhode Island, 02903, United States

Location

Brown Univerity

Providence, Rhode Island, 02912, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Suicidal Ideation; Suicide, Attempted; Self-Injurious Behavior

Interventions

Standard of Care

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Suicide; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Quality Indicators, Health Care; Quality of Health Care; Health Services Administration; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation

Limitations and Caveats

The major limitations were: 1) identification of participants eligible for the study in the various sections of the juvenile legal system with different frontline staff; and 2) follow-up rate for enrolled participants was no as high as expected due primarily to the fact that most participants exited the juvenile legal system at 3 months and therefore, at times, were unwilling to complete follow-up because they were no longer in the family court system.

Results Point of Contact

• Title: Anthony Spirito, PI
• Organization: Brown University

anthony_spirito@brown.edu

4014441929

Study Officials

• Anthony Spirito, PhD

  Brown U

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Publication Agreements

• PI is Sponsor Employee: Yes
• Restrictive Agreement: No

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Outcome assessors will be blind; participants will not be told to what condition they are assigned
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: 2 group randomized controlled trial

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 30, 2018
• First Posted: August 31, 2018
• Study Start: January 1, 2019
• Primary Completion: October 1, 2022
• Study Completion: December 1, 2022
• Last Updated: November 12, 2024
• Results First Posted: January 30, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-10

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF
• Time Frame: 1 year after completion of all follow-up data
• Access Criteria: Contact PI

Locations

US (2)