An Adaptive Intervention to Increase Engagement to Community-based Care After an ED Admission: For Youth at Risk for Suicide and Self-injurious Behavior

The scientific premise of this application is supported by youth psychiatric emergency department research and gaps in the literature. The purpose of this study is to refine and pilot a brief, adaptive ED intervention via Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) design that targets individual and systemic barriers to care to increase linkage to subsequent community-based MH care for youth after an ED admission and referral. This study employs an ecological approach for the study of MH service disparities. This intervention is informed by the literature, ED interventions, a family-based approach, and directly targets three presumptive mechanisms. Primary outcomes, measured at 1-week and 4-, and 6-months include increased linkage to MH care (attendance), reduced SSIB symptoms and severity, and the engagement of the purported therapeutic mechanisms. This study is innovative because it offers a brief, family-based SMART to meet the needs of the population of youth and caregivers served in the ED. <br>