SAFETY-Parent: Online Learning Module to Support Parents of Suicidal Youth

Youth suicide is a major public health problem, and suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among 10-24-year-olds in the United States. Parents (parents refers to all primary caregivers) have a significant role in youth suicide prevention, and studies have demonstrated the importance of families in youth suicide interventions. Supporting parents to manage safety while maintaining strong relationships with their children is critical in suicide prevention efforts and may lead to reduction suicidal behavior and death by suicide. Online platforms may also be used to supplement individual psychosocial intervention, via additional skills learning and practice opportunities. Online programs and applications are now a familiar and preferred way for parents to receive information and support. Additionally, online interventions are easily scalable for broad dissemination and can be used to augment and complement face-to-face services. This proposal aims to adapt the parent component of Safe Alternatives for Teens and Youths (SAFETY) outpatient intervention to SAFETY-Parent (SAFETY-P), a self-paced interactive learning module for parents, to be implemented as an augmentation to individual treatment for youth being seen for suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, or recent suicide attempts in a brief crisis care outpatient clinic at a large children’s hospital. Phase 1 will focus on finalizing the SAFETY-P content to the online learning module. In Phase 1, the research team will conduct 4 separate stakeholder focus groups (adolescents, parents, behavioral health inpatient and outpatient providers, and parent survivors of suicide loss) to inform adaptations to SAFETY-P and development of the self-paced, interactive module to be used in Phase 2. Phase 2 will be a small open case series (10 families and 5 clinicians) integrating additional key stakeholder feedback to improve the usability of SAFETY-P. Phase 3 will include a pilot test of the revised SAFETY-P learning module. To assess the feasibility and acceptability of the SAFETY-P module, the research team will conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial with N = 30 youth and parents, who will be randomized to either the SAFETY-P + treatment as usual (TAU) or to TAU alone. Outcomes will include feasibility and acceptability, including satisfaction measures related to SAFETY-P content and to the online learning module usability, clinician-report of SAFETY-P use and effectiveness, services use and youth individual treatment, parent outcomes on family and parent variables, and youth outcomes on youth suicidal risk and family variables.