Supporting Caregivers Following Mental Health Emergency Department Visits

Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago75 enrolled

Overview

The investigators plan to conduct a pilot hybrid effectiveness-implementation type 1 randomized controlled trial comparing 3 arms of varying follow-up intervention. Caregivers of youth ages 10-17 who present to the Lurie Children's Hospital ED with suicidal thoughts or behaviors (STBs) and are discharged with a safety plan will be included in the current study. Families will be randomized to receive either 1) treatment as usual, 2) follow-up phone calls, or 3) automatic electronic medical record (EMR) MyChart messages

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Caregiver Participation Emergency Department Presentation Safety Plan

Interventions

Parents/guardians are contacted via telephone by a psychiatric social worker within 72 hours of ED discharge, then the family receives weekly phone calls until either they have successfully connected to follow-up mental health services or asks to no longer be contacted. Otherwise phone calls will continue to be made weekly until 60-days post-discharge.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 10 YearsMax age: 17 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Participants are eligible for participation in the current study if they are parent/guardians of youth ages 10-17 who received a psychiatric evaluation in the ED for suicidal thoughts or behaviors and are being discharged with a safety plan Exclusion Criteria: * Parents/guardians will be excluded from recruitment if the youth is in state custody, if they are not proficient in English or Spanish, if the patient is being admitted or transferred for medical or psychiatric hospital admission, or they are not willing to enroll in MyChart through the EMR. The investigators are also only enrolling one caregiver per patient. In other words, if a patient returns to the ED with a different caregiver, the investigators will not enroll the other caregiver.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

ED Return Visits

Count of return visits to the ED for a mental health chief complaint within 90 days from initial ED encounter

Time frame: Between baseline enrollment and 90 day follow-up assessment

Secondary Outcomes

Intervention Acceptability

Participant acceptability (using Acceptability of Intervention; AIM measure)

Time frame: 90 Days follow-up

Study feasibility

Percentage of eligible and approached patients that consent and are enrolled in the study

Time frame: Baseline

Central Contacts

Amanda Burnside, PhD

CONTACT

312-227-2785 aburnside@luriechildrens.org

Danielle Cory, MENG