Suicide in Urban Natives: Detection and Networks to Combat Events

Collaborative Hub to Reduce the Burden of Suicide Among Urban American Indian and Alaska Native Young Adults

This study compares the effectiveness of a program to detect and manage suicide risk among American-Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth. Half of the participants will receive caring text messages to reduce suicidal thoughts, attempts, and hospitalizations and to increase engagement, social connectedness, and resilience in at-risk youth. The other half will receive usual care that does not include the caring text messages.

The study, "Suicide in Urban Natives: Detection and Networks to Combat Events," builds on Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to treatment (SBIRT), carried out through the primary care setting, to detect and manage suicide risk. This approach is multilevel, targeting both the healthcare system and the individual, and links screening to existing mobile phone technologies shown to promote resilience and to tap the protective benefits of social connectedness. This Collaborative Hub will conduct a randomized control trial that compares the effectiveness of enhancing these SBIRT programs by sending caring text messages to reduce suicidal ideation, attempts, and hospitalizations, and to increase engagement, social connectedness, and resilience. The Investigators' long-term goal is to disseminate and translate the lessons learned into practical policy, organizational changes, and preventive innovations that optimize patient-centered health outcomes and ultimately reduce or eliminate the dramatic and tragic suicide-related health disparities among urban AI/AN youth and young adults.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Self-identify as American Indian or Alaska Native;
• Screen positive for mild, moderate, or severe risk of suicidality (referred by a clinical provider);
• Have a text-enabled mobile phone;
• Willing to be contacted by text;
• Able to participate voluntarily;
• Speak and read English;
• Cognitively able to independently provide written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Under age 18
• In danger of imminent self-harm;
• Hospitalized