One of the highest risk periods for suicidal behavior is in the first 6 months after discharge from psychiatric hospital.
Qualitative Study for Development of the SafeApp (2013)
The purpose of this project was togather data for later studies that developed BRITEPath, by conducting qualitative interviews with suicidal teens, their parents and clinician providers to determine whether they found a smart phone application to be a useful in the implementation of their safety plan. As part of standard clinical care for suicidal teens, an individualized safety plan is developed for each suicidal teen. The safety plan is routinely laminated and given to the teen to be used should suicidal thoughts recur. We conducted focus groups and individual qualitative interviews to determine whether the development of a smartphone application would be a useful tool to augment safety plan and learned what features of an app would be helpful in using a safety plan on a smart device.
MySafetySpace: Development of a Safety Plan App for Adolescents at Risk for Suicidal Behavior (2014)
We engaged providers, parents, and youth in an additional qualitative study to gain valuable information regarding safety planning and technology use by conducting qualitative interviews with children in outpatient units and their caregivers as well as outpatient clinicians. Information gathered from initial interviews were used to inform the early development of a safety plan phone application, MySafetySpace (MSS). Second interviews took place after initial development with the same or similarly eligible participants to provide additional feedback. Following this qualitative phase, include a pilot of 30 individuals and randomized clinical trial (RCT) of 65 individuals were developed to test whether this phone app resulted in the safety plan being used more frequently and more effectively in the face of suicidal urges (and precursors thereof) than a standard safety plan.
As Safe As Possible Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (2014-2017)
In a recently completed pilot RCT of 65 suicidal adolescent inpatients (funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, R34 MH100451) across 2-sites (the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center-UTSW and Western Psychiatric Hospital-WPH), the ASAP intervention (delivered on the inpatient unit pre-discharge) + BRITE smart phone app reduced the hazard of suicide attempts over the subsequent 6 months compared to treatment as usual (TAU) (adjusted HR=0.22, p=0.03), especially in youth with a previous history of a suicide attempt (HR=0.12, p<.05).
As Safe As Possible Foundation Randomized Controlled Trial (2018- )
In an ongoing 2-site study (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center-UTSW and Western Psychiatric Hospital-WPH) funded by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), we are conducting a randomized clinical trial (RCT) in 240 adolescents hospitalized for suicidality, to examine the single and additive effects of two components of a brief intervention for suicidal adolescents: As Safe As Possible (ASAP), which focuses on emotion regulation and safety planning; and the BRITE app.
BRITEPath Open Pilot in Pediatric Primary Care for Embedded Mental Health Staff (2018-2019)
More information coming soon...
BRITEPath Open Pilot for Primary Care Providers-Foundation support (2018-2020)
More information coming soon
BRITEPath RCT in Pediatric Primary Care (2020- )
Enrollment currently ongoing....
DISCLAIMER
For questions about BRITEPath, or inquiries about using these materials for non-commercial purposes, please contact the researchers at britepathstudy@gmail.com. BRITEPath was classified as exempt from Institutional Review Board review by the Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) at the University of Pittsburgh (STUDY20050047). The HRPO may be contacted at 412-383-1480. All materials related to MySafetySpace, BRITE and BRITEPath are copyrighted under case #03344 and registered through the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute and National Institutes of Health (NIH), submitted on 6/16/14.