Feasibility and acceptability of EDBridge: A brief contact intervention for adolescents at risk of suicide and their parents

Abstract

Suicide remains a leading cause of death for Australian adolescents, and suicide and self-harm related Emergency Department presentations are rising. Brief contact interventions are an important component of comprehensive treatment approaches for adolescent suicide risk. Research has found that families feel excluded from their adolescent’s care in the ED and don’t receive sufficient information about how to support them, despite evidence suggesting involving families in adolescent suicide prevention interventions leads to better outcomes. Additionally, there is a need to provide continuity of care after discharge from the ED.

The EDBridge Pilot Feasibility & Acceptability trial involves a multi-component brief-contact intervention for adolescents aged 12-18 who are discharged from an Emergency Department with suicidal thoughts or behaviours, and their parents/carers. It involves a suicide safety planning intervention for adolescents, a parent factsheet resource to support parents to manage adolescent suicide risk outside the ED, and an automated follow-up text message support program for both adolescents and their parents/carers.

The aims of this trial are to determine whether EDBridge is feasible (that is, how easy or practical EDBridge is to provide), and acceptable to adolescents, parents, and clinicians. We also aim to collect early information about whether EDBridge can help improve the mental health and suicide-related symptoms of parents and adolescents, and increase their engagement with community mental health support.

We hypothesise that EDBridge will be feasible and acceptable to clinicians, adolescents, and parents. We also hypothesise that the pilot trial will give early indication that EDBridge can support adolescents and parents to improve suicide-related and mental health outcomes and increase engagement with community mental health support.