Electronic, Self-Guided Safety Plan in Adolescents: Project SAFER

Summary

Suicide is a leading cause of death for youth 10-24, and nearly ¼ of adolescents report nonfatal suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB). However, traditional interventions (e.g., multi-session therapy protocols) are contingent upon (1) access to treatment, (2) involvement of parents/guardians (hereafter parents), and (3) disclosure of risk to treatment providers. Unfortunately, adolescents are frequently hesitant to disclose STB to healthcare providers and parents for reasons including shame, stigma, and fear of hospitalization, with even lower rates of disclosure among queer youth-including those with diverse genders and sexualities- who are at disproportionately high risk for STB. Related to these concerns, most youth at risk for suicide, as well as other mental health challenges, do not access any mental healthcare. Self-guided, brief digital interventions may be a powerful adolescent suicide prevention tool. With their relative accessibility-they can be completed privately, at home, for at no cost-such interventions are well-suited for youth not accessing traditional care. Thus, effective digital adaptation of brief suicide prevention interventions is a promising frontier for adolescent suicide prevention.

A strong candidate for digital adaptation is the Safety Planning Intervention (SPI), a brief (\~5-10 minute) single-session intervention shown to significantly reduce STB in adults. In the SPI, people at risk for suicide receive brief education about suicidal thoughts and crises before developing a personalized, one-page plan with skills and resources to use during future suicide crises, when it is difficult to think clearly. There is strong evidence across several randomized control trials (RCTs) that SPI reduce suicidal behaviors in adults compared to those who received treatment as usual. Despite widespread use in outpatient and acute clinical settings across ages, there is a paucity of adequately-powered RCTs testing whether the SPI (in any format) reduces STB in adolescents.

Emerging evidence supports the SPI can work well in digital format among adolescents. In qualitative studies, adolescents with a history of STBs reported that they would be comfortable using a digital safety plan and feel it would be helpful to them in a crisis, emphasizing easy access and customizability as useful features. Building on this work, I created a digital, self-guided SPI specifically for use in online studies of high-risk adolescents. Preliminary research (approved by DU IRB# 1505797) suggests that youth find this self-guided digital SPI "very helpful" and nearly half actually use the safety plan in the next month. Moreover, using a standardized coding system, quality of self-guided safety plans mirrored the quality seen in clinician-guided, adult SPI. However, it remains unclear whether the SPI in any format can reduce STB in adolescents.

This project will test the ability of a self-guided SPI, compared to a suicide psychoeducational control intervention, to increase self-efficacy to avoid suicidal behaviors and to reduce suicidal thoughts and suicidal behaviors in adolescents over a 3-month follow-up period. The investigators hypothesize that compared to the control condition, adolescents who receive the SPI will report greater self-efficacy to avoid suicidal action and reduced STB at the 3-month follow-up assessment. If hypotheses are supported, this study will provide strong, high-quality evidence in favor of the potential of highly accessible, digital self-guided SPIs to prevent suicidal behavior in adolescents. In this case, distribution of such an intervention at scale could be a powerful tool for reducing STBs in adolescents.

Conditions

• Suicide Attempt
• Suicide Ideation

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Psychoeducation about Suicide Crisis Resources (Control Intervention)

The active control intervention includes psychoeducation about suicide crisis services, with a particular focus on breaking down myths and barriers to using suicide crisis services use.

BEHAVIORAL

Experimental: Self-Guided Electronic Safety Plan Intervention

This is a modified version of the E-SPI first created by Methi and colleagues (2024) which was originally adapted from the six primary steps of the Stanely-Brown safety plan (identifying warning signs, internal coping strategies, social distractions, non-professional crisis contacts, professional crisis resources, suicidal means restriction). Modifications to the E-SPI were based on pilot-study participant feedback and feedback from a youth focus group. The intervention was updated in accordance with pilot-study participant feedback and feedback from subsequent youth interviews. Modification examples include updated instruction wording to reduce ambiguity, updated illustrations, and increased accessibility for participants with reading-based learning disabilities.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Denver

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Kathryn R Fox, PhD · University of Dener

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

13 Years

Max Age

17 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-03-08

Primary Completion

2025-08-05

Completion

2025-08-05

Countries

• United States

Study Locations