As the nation's youth mental health crisis continues, providers continue to find ways to help address gaps in care. Patients who receive care for suicidal thoughts and behaviors need extra support as they transition after they are discharged from inpatient care or the emergency department. Caring Contacts are validating messages sent to patients via text messages, postcards or letters to offer patients ongoing care and support without placing any demands (such as reminders to attend their next appointment).
At Nationwide Children's, Caring Contacts has been implemented in a text-based format, as part of the hospital's Zero Suicide quality improvement work. Zero Suicide is a framework of best practices in care that has been shown to reduce suicides in health care systems, and includes elements such as routine patient screening for followed by an evidence-based assessment and safety plan when patients screen positive. In a study today in the , faculty at the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research (CSPR) at Nationwide Children's Hospital described the implementation of an automated Caring Contacts texting system and found the intervention helped youth at risk for suicide feel hopeful and supported during a period of heightened risk.
According to the study, this intervention and similar efforts to improve care transitions are critical to improving youth suicide prevention outcomes. "Prior research has shown that patients are around 300 times more at risk of suicide in the fir.