Optimizing the Zero Suicide Model for Juvenile Detention

Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

This K23 Career Development Award will prepare the applicant to launch her career as an independent investigator with expertise in research at the intersection of implementation and mental health research, with a specialization in legal settings that serve youth, consistent with NIMH Strategic Objective 4. Michigan State University, under the expert mentorship of Drs. Marc Atkins, Jennifer Johnson, Jaleel Abdul-Adil, and Lisa Saldana, is the ideal environment for the applicant’s career development. Faculty conduct extensive implementation research with the goal of promoting mental health and preventing suicide. Training goals include: (a) foundational mental health disparities research, (b) advanced implementation research, and (c) specialized training in suicide prevention research and practice. The research component of this application was developed to complement the training goals and provide opportunities to execute and refine newly developed skills. The research plan addresses the critical need to prevent suicide among youth in juvenile justice settings. Youth in juvenile detention centers experience suicidal ideation at higher rates than their peers. Aligned with the Zero Suicide model, the applicant will optimize the clinical and implementation elements used within juvenile detention centers (i.e., screening, pathways of care, and brief treatment of suicidality via the Safety Planning Intervention). As the applicant’s goal is to become an expert in the implementation of a range of evidence-based practices for legal settings that serve youth, studying suicide prevention, given its large research base of evidence-based practices and its complex regulatory concerns, provides the ideal training platform. In Aim 1, formerly detained young adults (n=35) will be interviewed to understand their lived experiences and identify key barriers to and facilitators of suicide prevention in juvenile detention. In Aim 2, using data from the applicant’s prior work and Aim 1, the applicant will refine the Zero Suicide clinical elements for detention to ensure they are appropriate and select and operationalize the implementation elements. In Aim 3, the applicant will pilot the feasibility of the Zero Suicide model and R01 method in two local detention centers using a stepped wedge design and a convergent mixed method. The aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of the clinical and implementation elements as well as the recruitment, retention, and data collection procedures. This project will provide the necessary data and skills for the applicant’s future R01 hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation trial of the Zero Suicide model for juvenile detention. The timing of this proposed study is critical. Preventing youth suicide is a national priority, and NIMH has pledged to reduce the suicide rate by 20% by 2025.