Plan and Protect: Safety Planning for Teens in Rural Emergency Departments

Conditions

• Suicide Attempt
• Suicide Ideation

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

12 Years - 17 Years

Healthy Volunteers

Not accepted

Interventions

• Plan & Protect safety planning intervention — BEHAVIORAL
  Plan and Protect (P\&P) is a tablet-based, family-centered quality improvement program targeted to rural Northern New England that combines a youth-facing safety-planning module with a caregiver-facing home safety decision aid and youth safety information. The goal is to help adolescents and their caregivers develop concrete, culturally-sensitive safety plans during emergency department visits.
• Care as usual — BEHAVIORAL
  Adolescents and caregivers will receive treatment as usual at the Emergency Department.

Study Details

The goal of this observational study is to determine whether implementing a culturally sensitive, tablet-based safety planning program called Plan \& Protect (P\&P) within rural emergency departments can improve home safety and reduce suicide risk in adolescents presenting with suicidality. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Will implementing P\&P increase caregiver-reported home safety (reduce access to firearms and unsafe medication storage) for adolescents 12-17 years old presenting to rural EDs with suicidal ideation, self-harm, or mental health crisis? * Will implementing P\&P decrease adolescent-reported perceived suicide risk and related outcomes (e.g., suicide events, and attendance at follow-up mental healthcare)? Researchers will compare outcomes for adolescents and caregivers receiving P\&P (implemented as the new standard of care at sites during the intervention periods) to those receiving usual care (prior to P\&P implementation at those hospitals) to see if P\&P increases home safety and decreases suicide risk and related healthcare utilization. Participants will, if clinically appropriate: * Complete the tablet-based P\&P modules during their ED visit * Complete self-report measures at baseline, \~30 days, and \~3 months post-discharge * A subset will also participate in semi-structured interviews

Key Dates

Start date

Jun 1, 2026

Status verified

Jan 2026

Primary completion

Sep 30, 2028

Completion

Sep 30, 2028

Study Design

Enrollment

550 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Arms

• Experimental: Plan & Protect
  Plan and Protect is a tablet-based program that integrates a youth-facing safety-planning module with a caregiver-facing home safety planning decision aid to create culturally sensitive, locally tailored safety plans and promote caregiver engagement in home safety during rural ED visits for adolescent suicidality
• Other: Care as usual
  Outcomes for adolescents and their caregivers enrolled during the pre-implementation (usual care) periods at each hospital will be compared to outcomes for those enrolled after their hospital implements the P\&P program as quality improvement

Primary Outcome Measure

Improved home safety (parent and youth) [ Time Frame: 30 and 90 days after ED visit ]

Central Contacts

• Jacqueline Pogue, MPH
  603-646-5614
  [email protected]

Locations (4)

Find similar trials in Keene, NH

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