In 2020, firearms became the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the United States, with suicide attempts accounting for one quarter of these deaths. Firearms are the most lethal means of suicide - more than 90% of youth who attempt suicide with a firearm will die. It follows that limiting access to firearms for individuals at elevated risk for suicide, a form of lethal means counseling, is one of a few evidence-based suicide prevention strategies. The Emergency Department, as a safety net for vulnerable youth, is an essential setting for lethal means safety planning for youth.
Previous research done by Dr. Haasz demonstrates that 44% of high-school age teens can access a firearm, with increased access among those at elevated suicide risk. Despite this, existing lethal means interventions were developed with caregivers of teens at elevated suicide risk and engage caregivers in planning, failing to address teen firearm access. This highlights a critical gap in that teens need to be involved in the development of lethal means safety interventions and engaged in lethal means safety discussions in order to comprehensively address their firearm access and decrease their risk of suicide.
This proposal aims to address this gap by co-designing and pilot-testing a lethal means safety intervention focused on decreasing firearm access among teens at elevated suicide risk with the following aims: 1) Assess teen and caregiver perspectives on teen engagement in lethal means safety planning and develop an intervention to address firearm access among teens at elevated suicide risk, and 3) Pilot test the intervention. Dr. Haasz is further ensuring a broad perspective of teen voices by focusing her work on suburban and rural youth.
As a pediatric emergency medicine physician and prior administrative leader, Dr. Maya Haasz is familiar with the benefits, challenges, and operational considerations of implementing this intervention in the Emergency Department. Her clinical work coupled with her research expertise position her superbly to complete the proposed AFSP Early Career Research Grant. Dr. Haasz’s long-term goal is to become an expert in intervention development to reduce firearm suicide in children and adolescents. She has assembled a multi-disciplinary team of mentors with extensive methodological and topical expertise to ensure her success in achieving her research and training goals. She has already submitted a Career Development Award to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development that complements, but does not overlap with, the attached proposal. Her innovative line of research, which involves teens in developing an intervention to decrease firearm access among teens at elevated suicide risk, will allow Dr. Haasz to successfully obtain and complete a Career Development Award and progress to an independent research career. More broadly, it will serve as a model for teen engagement in suicide prevention.
