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Helping Hospitals Prevent Repeat Youth Suicide Attempts

Statement of Problem

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for U.S. adolescents, and suicide rates are constantly rising. One in ten high school students report having attempted suicide, and medical hospitalizations following youth suicide attempts have doubled in the past decade. Despite the fact that 60,000 youth are hospitalized for suicide attempt each year and that many youth attempt suicide multiple times, many medical hospital teams do not adequately ensure that youth who are discharged receive continuing mental health care. Attending a mental health follow-up visit after hospitalization is associated with as much as 75% lower risk of subsequent suicide attempt. To help hospitals prevent suicide among children and adolescents, there is a critical need to develop tools to disseminate best practices for mental health care after discharge from a suicide attempt.

Description

Helping Hospitals Prevent Repeat Youth Suicide Attempts

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After evaluating these strategies, we will develop a toolkit that hospitals can use to reduce and prevent repeat suicide attempts among hospitalized youth.

Next Steps

Once we develop the toolkit, we will conduct a pilot test in hospital inpatient units to determine how feasible the toolkit is to use and whether the toolkit is effective at improving clinical outcomes for youth. We will also use this study to develop methods for a future fully powered trial of the toolkit, with the ultimate goal of optimizing it for use at hospitals nationwide.

This project page was last updated in September 2019.

Suggested Citation

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PolicyLab. Helping Hospitals Prevent Repeat Youth Suicide Attempts [online]. Available at: http://www.policylab.chop.edu. [Accessed: plug in date accessed here]. 

 

 

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