HAVEN-Connect Youth Suicide Prevention

Summary

HAVEN=CONNECT is a comprehensive depression and suicide prevention intervention that is designed to be integrated into predominantly Black churches, a strategically ideal location for mental health intervention for Black youth. HAVEN=CONNECT has three components: (1) Church Community Engagement: an interactive process of introducing the program to key church leaders and stakeholder groups. (2) Faith-Based Curriculum: educational overview for pastors, other ministerial staff and youth lay leaders on how to integrate the program into the church using communication mediums that have cultural and religious relevance in the Black Church context. (3) Youth-Connect Intervention: The goals of this project are to test the impact of HAVEN=CONNECT (HAVEN) on key intervention targets, hypothesized mediators, and build a research-informed implementation strategy for future large-scale testing.

Conditions

• Suicide Prevention

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

HAVEN-Connect

Youth-Connect Program for adolescents/emerging adults and Connect training for adult members is a strength-based network health depression and suicide prevention program. Participants learn together about and model skills to each other to grow and sustain "Four Cores" supportive of mental health and reduced likelihood of vulnerability to suicidal thoughts: (1) Healthy relationships and accountability spanning friendship, community and family relationships (Kinship); (2) Meaning and value in life (Purpose); (3) Informal and formal help-seeking (Guidance); and (4) Activities that give strength and balance emotions (Balance). Modules include self-assessment of strength areas, needs and using Four Cores to manage challenging emotions. Group skill-building activities identify strengths of all members, and members learn how a strong network supports all members' well-being. The training uses active learning including high energy activities and peer-to-peer teaching.

BEHAVIORAL

HAVEN Suicide Prevention

Connect was developed to extend Sources of Strength, an evidence-based suicide prevention program that trains key opinion leaders to disseminate a model of healthy coping to peers, which has been implemented in over 80 secondary schools in New York State. Connect uses a multiple-session group training to build suicide protection at individual and group levels. The first version, Wingman-Connect was developed for young Air Force personnel in training (20% Black or multiracial).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Rochester

  collaborator OTHER

• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

  collaborator OTHER

• George Washington University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Sherry D Molock, Ph.D., M.Div. · George Washington University, Dept of Psychological & Brain Sciences

• Sidney Hankerson, MD, MBA · Mt. Sinai Icheon School of Medicine - Psychiatry

• Peter Wyman, Ph.D. · University of Rochester Medical Center - Psychiatry

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

13 Years

Max Age

19 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-06-01

Primary Completion

2026-11-30

Completion

2026-11-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations