PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Study shows text messages help youth at risk for suicide feel supported after discharge

Nationwide Children’s is the first pediatric hospital to implement Caring Contacts approach within its Zero Suicide initiative

2024-08-13
(Press-News.org) (COLUMBUS, Ohio) – 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 suicide care that has been shown to reduce suicides in health care systems, and includes elements such as routine patient screening for suicide risk followed by an evidence-based assessment and safety plan when patients screen positive.

In a study published today in the JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting, 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 first week after hospital discharge, and 200 times more at risk over the first month compared to the general population,” said John Ackerman, PhD, child clinical psychologist and suicide prevention clinical manager for the CSPR at Nationwide Children’s. “Reaching patients where they are in their day-to-day lives is crucial in supporting them before, during and after a crisis. That also means ensuring messages of hope and validation are accessible with the technology they use most – their phones.”

The study utilized Caring Contacts message content in the highest acuity behavioral health services at Nationwide Children’s, enrolling patients at the time of discharge from services sought during a suicidal crisis. Sets of supportive text messages with accompanying images meant to promote hope, inclusivity and connection were automatically sent to enrolled patients during the four-month period starting the day after patients left the hospital. Each message also included crisis resources. There were three phases for this initiative, with message content development beginning in 2018, and full implementation and data collection concluding in 2021.

More than 1,700 patients completed the Caring Contacts program during the study period. As a result of post-text satisfaction surveys, 83% of respondents reported feeling moderately to very hopeful, and 88% reported feeling moderately to very supported. Of note, 92% of respondents reported that peers would be helped by these text messages, and 86% reported wanting to keep receiving messages in the future if given the option. The lowest enrollment rate was seen in 13-year-olds, while the highest enrollment rate was seen in 18-year-olds, and females enrolled at a higher rate (54%) than males (48%).

“More work needs to be done in order to measure clinical effectiveness and improve rates of enrollment. However, as the first children’s hospital to study this approach and integrate it as part of an overall quality improvement framework, we are encouraged by what we’ve seen in terms of implementing this approach in our hospital,” said Glenn Thomas, PhD, lead author of the study, clinical psychologist and director in Behavioral Health Services at Nationwide Children’s. “Patients need to know that we are here for them even after they leave our walls.”

About The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital
Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report’s 2023-24 list of “Best Children’s Hospitals,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of America’s largest not-for-profit free-standing pediatric health care systems providing unique expertise in pediatric population health, behavioral health, genomics and health equity as the next frontiers in pediatric medicine, leading to best outcomes for the health of the whole child.  Integrated clinical and research programs are part of what allows Nationwide Children’s to advance its unique model of care. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s faculty train the next generation of pediatricians, scientists and pediatric specialists. The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded free-standing pediatric research facilities in the U.S., supporting basic, clinical, translational, behavioral and population health research. The AWRI is comprised of multidisciplinary Centers of Emphasis paired with advanced infrastructure supporting capabilities such as technology commercialization for discoveries; gene- and cell-based therapies; and genome sequencing and analysis. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org/Research.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

About 10,000 chemistry presentations will happen in Denver soon

2024-08-13
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13, 2024 — The American Chemical Society (ACS) is hosting ACS Fall 2024, its virtual and in-person meeting, with the theme “Elevating Chemistry.” It will take place in Denver on Aug. 18-22. About 10,000 presentations will feature cutting-edge developments on a range of scientific topics at ACS Fall 2024. Embargoed press releases and videos are available to members of the media on the EurekAlert! website. Reporters can also email newsroom@acs.org to request access to the embargoed content. View the ACS Fall 2024 schedule for a full list of in-person, hybrid ...

Protecting surf breaks mitigates climate change, helps coastal communities, analysis finds

Protecting surf breaks mitigates climate change, helps coastal communities, analysis finds
2024-08-13
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Safeguarding places to hang ten and shoot the curl is an opportunity to simultaneously mitigate climate change, fuel tourism and help surrounding ecosystems, new research has shown. “There is a growing conservation movement regarding coastal areas that host surf breaks,” said Jacob Bukoski of Oregon State University, one of the study’s co-authors. “Earlier research showed that surf breaks tend to be biodiversity hotspots, but no one had looked at the stocks of carbon held within these ecosystems – carbon that could drive climate change if ...

New species of extinct walrus-like mammal discovered in the North Atlantic

New species of extinct walrus-like mammal discovered in the North Atlantic
2024-08-13
A new discovery by a team of paleontologists, led by Dr. Mathieu Boisville (University of Tsukuba, Japan), has uncovered a new species of the extinct genus Ontocetus from the Lower Pleistocene deposits in the North Atlantic. This species, named Ontocetus posti, displays surprising similarities in feeding adaptations to the modern walrus (Odobenus rosmarus), highlighting an intriguing case of convergent evolution. The research is published in the open access journal PeerJ Life & Environment. The fossils ...

Empowering women – a key to both sustainable energy and gender justice

Empowering women – a key to both sustainable energy and gender justice
2024-08-13
Involving women in implementing solar energy technologies in developing countries not only has great climate impact. A new study published in Nature Energy and carried out by researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, shows that empowering women through energy care work can change unjust, gendered norms and long-lived injustices. Unlike going from fossil to renewable fuels within the transport sector, transitioning to renewable energy for electricity production is often done at the local level due to decentralised energy providers. Around the world, there are community-led programmes that provide solar, wind and hydro power, as alternative, greener energy sources. ...

Delivery robots’ green credentials make them more attractive to consumers

2024-08-13
PULLMAN, Wash. – The smaller carbon footprint, or wheel print, of automatic delivery robots can encourage consumers to use them when ordering food, according to a Washington State University study. The suitcase-sized, self-driving electric vehicles are much greener than many traditional food delivery methods because they have low, or even zero, carbon emissions. In this study, participants who had more environmental awareness and knowledge about carbon emissions were more likely to choose the robots as ...

Mayo Clinic offers new innovative therapy to treat atrial fibrillation

2024-08-13
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Cardiologists in Mayo Clinic's Heart Rhythm Clinic are using a new innovative energy source to safely and successfully treat a common type of heart arrhythmia. The therapy, called pulsed field ablation (PFA), has received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and represents a significant milestone in treating atrial fibrillation (AFib). The irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm of AFib can lead to blood clots in the heart, increasing a patient's risk of stroke. Clinicians can use medication and therapies to help reset the heart rhythm, but some patients have AFib that ...

Changing food consumers' choices may help cut greenhouse gases

2024-08-13
Planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions associated with the global food supply chains induced by diets could fall by 17% if people change their food choices towards more plant-based diets, a new study reveals.   Researchers believe that a currently over-consuming 56.9% of the global population would save 32.4% of global dietary emissions by changing their diet to the planetary health diet proposed by the EAT-Lancet Commission.  Publishing their findings today (13 Aug) in Nature Climate Change, an international group of researchers note that a diet switch to the planetary health diet would balance the ...

Significant link found between heme iron, found in red meat and other animal products, and type 2 diabetes risk

2024-08-13
Key points: Researchers identified a significant link between heme iron—iron found in red meat and other animal products —and risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), as well as the metabolic pathways underlying the link. Non-heme iron—iron found in plant-based foods—was not associated with risk of T2D. The study suggests that cutting down on heme iron from red meat and adopting a plant-rich diet can help lower diabetes risk. And it raises concerns about the addition of heme to increasingly popular plant-based meat alternatives. Boston, MA—Higher intake ...

Older adults’ life satisfaction varies by immigrant status, living arrangement and social disposition

2024-08-13
TORONTO, ON – Do older adults who live alone feel less satisfied with their lives? A new analysis of about 12,000 respondents aged 65 and older reveals that what matters for Canadian older adults’ life satisfaction is not living alone per se. Rather personality-based social dispositions play a key role in how older adults feel about living alone. In addition, the role these dispositions play tend to differ between Canadian-born and immigrant older adults. The researchers found that despite the existence ...

Say ‘aah’ and get a diagnosis on the spot: is this the future of health?

Say ‘aah’ and get a diagnosis on the spot: is this the future of health?
2024-08-13
A computer algorithm has achieved a 98% accuracy in predicting different diseases by analysing the colour of the human tongue. The proposed imaging system developed by Iraqi and Australian researchers can diagnose diabetes, stroke, anaemia, asthma, liver and gallbladder conditions, COVID-19, and a range of vascular and gastrointestinal issues. Engineering researchers from Middle Technical University (MTU) and the University of South Australia (UniSA) achieved the breakthrough in a series of experiments where they used 5260 images to train machine learning algorithms to detect tongue colour. Two ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Community partners key to success of vaccine clinic focused on neurodevelopmental conditions

Low-carbon collaborative dual-layer optimization for energy station considering joint electricity and heat demand response

McMaster University researchers uncover potential treatment for rare genetic disorders

The return of protectionism: The impact of the Sino-US trade war

UTokyo and NARO develop new vertical seed distribution trait for soybean breeding

Research into UK’s use of plastic packaging finds households ‘wishcycle’ rather than recycle – risking vast contamination

Vaccine shows promise against aggressive breast cancer

Adverse events affect over 1 in 3 surgery patients, US study finds

Outsourcing adult social care has contributed to England’s care crisis, argue experts

The Lancet: Over 800 million adults living with diabetes, more than half not receiving treatment, global study suggests

New therapeutic approach for severe COVID-19: faster recovery and reduction in mortality

Plugged wells and reduced injection lower induced earthquake rates in Oklahoma

Yin selected as a 2024 American Society of Agronomy Fellow

Long Covid could cost the economy billions every year

Bluetooth technology unlocks urban animal secrets

This nifty AI tool helps neurosurgeons find sneaky cancer cells

Treatment advances, predictive biomarkers stand to improve bladder cancer care

NYC's ride-hailing fee failed to ease Manhattan traffic, new NYU Tandon study reveals

Meteorite contains evidence of liquid water on Mars 742 million years ago

Self-reported screening helped reduce distressing symptoms for pediatric patients with cancer

Which risk factors are linked to having a severe stroke?

Opening borders for workers: Abe’s profound influence on Japan’s immigration regime

How skills from hospitality and tourism can propel careers beyond the industry

Research shows managers of firms handling recalls should review media scrutiny before deciding whether to lobby

New model system for the development of potential active substances used in condensate modifying drugs

How to reduce social media stress by leaning in instead of logging off

Pioneering research shows sea life will struggle to survive future global warming

In 10 seconds, an AI model detects cancerous brain tumor often missed during surgery 

Burden of RSV–associated hospitalizations in US adults, October 2016 to September 2023

Repurposing semaglutide and liraglutide for alcohol use disorder

[Press-News.org] Study shows text messages help youth at risk for suicide feel supported after discharge
Nationwide Children’s is the first pediatric hospital to implement Caring Contacts approach within its Zero Suicide initiative