News and Updates

 

An electronic version of YST is being piloted at University of Michigan. This initiative is being led by Dr. Arango and in collaboration with Wei Therapeutics.

The Youth-Nominated Support Team (YST) program is a 3-month program that pairs adolescents, who are being discharged from a healthcare facility after a suicide attempt, with adults (known as support adults) whom the patient selects to become their support network. YST decreases suicide risk by training the support adults to encourage youth to adhere to treatment and make positive behavioral choices. While effective, YST is not readily scalable as it requires significant time commitment from mental health professionals and necessitates engagement and coordination from multiple personnel. The objective of the eYST pilot project is to streamline YST’s operational processes by digitizing components of the YST program with the goal of reducing administrative burden and improving scalability.  Thus, this pilot study has two primary aims: 1) develop eYST, a platform to support more efficient implementation of YST; and 2) test the feasibility and acceptability of eYST in a single-group, open-label trial.

Recent Grants

Jane Harness, D.O.:  American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Grant Award (YIG-0-062-21)

Title: Development and preliminary testing of a "Papageno"-story interview intervention

Major Goals: The primary goals of this project are to create “Papageno” story video interviews of individuals who engaged in preparatory behaviors toward a suicide attempt but did not attempt suicide, and to conduct a pilot study of the impact of these video interviews on viewers’ self-reported reasons for living and hopelessness.

Starting Date:  10/2022

​Adam Horwitz, Ph.D.:  NIMH K23 Award (1K23 MH131761)

Title: Low-burden Adaptive Mobile Interventions for Mood and Suicide Risk

Major Goals: The goal of this career development award is to provide specialized training and mentorship for the candidate to develop the skills necessary to become an independent intervention researcher capable of translating the growing advancements of mobile/sensor  based data into low-burden, accessible, adaptive interventions that can be used to help reduce the societal impact of depression and suicide. 

Starting Date: 09/07/2022

Cheryl King, Ph.D., NIMH R01 Grant, Multi-PI with Michael Lindsey & Pamela Morris (NYU)

(R01 MH129786)

Title: Answering the Alarm: A System of Care for Black Youth at Risk for Suicide

Major Goals: The overall project goal is to increase risk identification, treatment referral and engagement, and, in turn, reduce suicidal ideation and behavior among Black youth. 

Starting Date:  07/28/2022 

Ewz Czyz, Ph.D.:  NIMH R01 Grant Award (R01 MH126871)

Title: Adaptive intervention to prevent adolescent suicidal behavior following

psychiatric hospitalization: A Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial

Major Goals: (1) Compare the adaptive interventions (AIs) that begin with MI-SP alone or MI-SP plus Texts on suicidal behavior 3 months post discharge, time-to-suicidal behavior and severity of suicidal ideation over 6 months; and (2) Determine the optimal sequence of intervention components.

Starting Date:  09/2021

Courtney Bagge, Ph.D.: NIMH R01 Grant Award (MH133587)

Alejandra Arango, Ph.D.: Site PI/Subcontract: NIMH SBIR Award

The Youth-Nominated Support Team (YST) program is a 3-month program that pairs adolescents, who are being discharged from a healthcare facility after a suicide attempt, with adults (known as support adults) whom the patient selects to become their support network. The YST intervenes with these adults, providing them with education, resources, and support to facilitate the youth’s positive behavioral choices, treatment adherence, and healthy outcomes. Dr. Arango is leading implementation of an eYST pilot project, which has two primary aims: 1) develop eYST, a platform to support more efficient implementation of YST; and 2) test the feasibility and acceptability of eYST in a single-group, open-label trial. eYST is designed is to streamline YST’s operational processes by digitizing components of the YST program with the goal of reducing administrative burden and improving scalability. 

Lisa Fedina's AFSP grant findings featured by AFSP

Profiles of Poly-Victimization and Suicide Risk among Young Adults was featured in a recent Research Roundup dissemination project. You can find the content here:

Research Roundup - https://afsp.org/story/research-roundup-july-2023-recently-published-findings-from-afsp-funded-studies

Dr. Cheryl King and Dr. Michael Lindsey receive NIMH Funding

Dr. Cheryl King, together with Dr. Michael Lindsey at the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research and Dr. Pamela Morris-Perez of NYU Steinhardt’sARCADIA for Suicide Prevention, have been awarded a NIMH-funded R01 research grant to study the effectiveness of a system of care for Black youth with suicide risk. This system, called WeCARE, combines suicide risk screening with an intervention to help connect at-risk youth to quality mental health services. The study will be implemented at the emergency departments of Harlem Hospital and Kings County Hospital in New York City. This project was developed in response to the needs highlighted in “Ring the Alarm: the Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America,” a 2019 report released by the Congressional Black Caucus’s Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health.

Congratulations to Dr. Czyz and team on your new project!

Dr. Czyz (PI) together with a team of co-investigators (Drs. Cheryl King, Cynthia Ewell-Foster, Victor Hong, Maureen Walton, and Inbal Nahum-Shani) have received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (R34-MH-124767) to develop an adaptive, text-based intervention for parents of suicidal youth seen in an emergency department (ED). The goal of this three-year study is to conduct a three-arm pilot of a text-based intervention for parents of suicidal youth, which additionally includes an embedded micro-randomized trial (MRT). More broadly, the project aims to address an urgent need for scalable continuity of care strategies for youth at elevated suicide risk and their caregivers post ED care.

Congratulations Dr. Bornheimer and team on your new project!

Dr. Lindsay Bornheimer

Dr. Lindsay Bornheimer (PI) and her team (Drs. Joe Himle, Cheryl King, and Stephan Taylor) have recently been awarded a Pilot Effectiveness Clinical Trial R34 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Her three-year project, “Feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a cognitive- behavioral suicide prevention-focused intervention tailored to adults diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (R34MH123609)” is focused on developing and testing an intervention to prevent suicide among adults with psychosis in community mental health.

Teaching youth to fish: New meta-analysis highlights the value of “youth-initiated” mentoring

The YST intervention was recently cited in an article on "youth-initiated" mentoring

NIMH Research Highlight: Differences in Suicide Risk Among Subgroups of Sexual and Gender Minority College Students

National Institutes of Health logo

Dr. Adam Horwitz was featured on the NIMH website for his research on suicide risk among gender and sexual minority youth.

TEDMED 2020

Dr. Cheryl King spoke at the TEDMED 2020 Conference March 3, 2020 in Boston, MA. Her topic was youth suicide prevention with a focus on the untapped strength of adults in teens' families and communities. 

Congratulations to Lisa Fedina on her new project!

Profiles of Poly-Victimization and Suicide Risk among Young Adults: Violence and trauma are considered important risk factors for suicidal behavior in young adults. However, we need a more complete picture of the types of trauma young adults experience, how such experiences contribute to overall suicide risk, and to what extent these patterns vary across youths' social identities. A national survey with a diverse sample of young adults may help to identify protective factors against suicide that promote resilience among young adults most at risk. 

2019 IASR/AFSP International Summit on Suicide Research

Congratulations to our team members who will present at IASR/AFSP this year. Works include:  

Sunday, October 27th

Symposia- Social connectedness and three-month risk for suicide attempts among adolescent emergency department patients. Cheryl King.

Symposia-An examination of a broad list of warning signs for suicide attempts: A multisite investigation. Courtney Bagge. 

Monday, October 28th

Poster M81- Suicide risk among sexual and gender minority college students: The role of victimization, discrimination, connectedness, and identity affirmation. Danielle Busby, Adam Horwitz, Kai Zheng, Gary Harper, Daniel Eisenberg, Ronald Albucher, Cheryl King.

Oral Presentation - A latent profile analysis of NSSI characteristics and four-month outcomes in emergency department youth. Claire Hatkevich, Ewa Czyz, Adam Horwitz, Johnny Berona, Cheryl King.

Oral Presentation - The quality of life and productivity losses associated with suicide deaths and related bereavement. John Richardson, David Hutton, Lisa Prosser, Daniel Eisenberg, Cheryl King. 

Plenary Session - Opioid, substance abuse, and suicide. Cheryl King, Chair. 

Oral Presentation - Feasibility and acceptability of augmenting safety planning with text-based support among psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents. Ewa Czyz. 

Tuesday, October 29th

Poster T36 - Sociodemographic differences in barriers to mental health care among a diverse sample of suicidal college students. Adam Horwitz, Danielle Busby, Taylor McGuire, Daniel Eisenberg, Kai Zheng, Jacqueline Pistorello, William Coryell, Ronald Albucher, Cheryl King. 

Poster T61 - Exposure to suicide deaths and attempts among adolescents in the United States. John Richardson, Cheryl King, David Hutton, Lisa Prosser, Daniel Eisenberg.

Symposia - The Youth-Nominated Support Team Intervention for suicidal adolescents. Cheryl King. 

Newsy Features the Youth-Nominated Support Team Intervention

Dr. Cheryl King was featured in a video about the Youth-Nominated Support Team (YST) Intervention and its potential effect on reducing youth suicide mortality. 

Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens (FACTS) Research Consortium

Drs. King and Ewell Foster will present their research on developing safe storage methods for rural families. 

NIH In Health: Teen Suicide

Dr. Cheryl King was featured in the NIH September Newsletter on teen suicide risk detection.

Five Ways to Prevent Adolescent Suicide

Dr. Cheryl King was interviewed for an article about teen suicide prevention for World Suicide Prevention Day. 

Congratulations Dr. Danielle Busby!

Dr. Danielle Busby accepted an Assistant Professor position at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. We wish her the best of luck on her new journey!

Congratulations Dr. Cindy Ewell Foster!

Dr. Cindy Ewell Foster and Patricia Smith, MS were recently awarded the Garrett Lee Smith State/Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention grant funding to implement the 5-year project entitled: Transforming Youth Suicide Prevention in Michigan, Phase 3 (TYSP-Mi3).  

Best Wishes, Tim!

Tim Mayer recently accepted a position as a research assistant at Brown University under the direction of Drs. Heather Schatten and Michael Armey. In the future, Tim hopes to pursue a PhD in counseling psychology. 

The Youth-Nominated Support Team Intervention In the News

Dr. Cheryl King was interviewed for an article about the Youth-Nominated Support Intervention (YST) and the potential role of social support on suicide mortality. 

Farewell, Nate!

Nate Healy recently accepted an offer from the University of Houston's clinical psychology Ph.D program under the direction of Dr. Anka Vujanovic. Nate hopes to pursue research focusing on PTSD and concurrent conditions (suicidality, anxiety, substance use) in first responders. 

YDSP Artwork

The YDSP research program has unveiled new artwork. Our artwork conveys two central concepts: (1) the synergy we have working together, and (2) our focus on reaching out and facilitating healthy youth outcomes. Thanks for all of your help on this, Tim!

The Narrowing Gender Gap In Teen Suicide

Dr. Cheryl King was featured in an article about the teen suicide gender gap and, specifically, the increase in female suicide deaths. 

Youth-Nominated Support Team Intervention MCubed Funding

Drs. Cheryl King, Joseph Himle, and Alex Rogers were recently awarded MCubed Diamond funding which encourages interdisciplinary research teams who seek to answer compelling questions in the area of translational research. The team will pilot test an adapted version of the YST intervention in the emergency department.

Recent Grants

Recent Grants

Jane Harness, D.O.:  American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Grant Award (YIG-0-062-21)

Title: Development and preliminary testing of a "Papageno"-story interview intervention

Major Goals: The primary goals of this project are to create “Papageno” story video interviews of individuals who engaged in preparatory behaviors toward a suicide attempt but did not attempt suicide, and to conduct a pilot study of the impact of these video interviews on viewers’ self-reported reasons for living and hopelessness.

Starting Date:  10/2022

 

​Adam Horwitz, Ph.D.:  NIMH K23 Award (1K23 MH131761)

Title: Low-burden Adaptive Mobile Interventions for Mood and Suicide Risk

Major Goals: The goal of this career development award is to provide specialized training and

mentorship for the candidate to develop the skills necessary to become an independent

intervention researcher capable of translating the growing advancements of mobile/sensor based

data into low-burden, accessible, adaptive interventions that can be used to help reduce

the societal impact of depression and suicide.

Starting Date: 09/07/2022

 

Cheryl King, Ph.D., NIMH R01 Grant, Multi-PI with Michael Lindsey & Pamela Morris (NYU)

(R01 MH129786)

Title: Answering the Alarm: A System of Care for Black Youth at Risk for Suicide

Major Goals: The overall project goal is to increase risk identification, treatment referral and

engagement, and, in turn, reduce suicidal ideation and behavior among Black youth.

Starting Date:  07/28/2022

 

Ewz Czyz, Ph.D.:  NIMH R01 Grant Award (R01 MH126871)

Title: Adaptive intervention to prevent adolescent suicidal behavior following

psychiatric hospitalization: A Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial

Major Goals: (1) Compare the adaptive interventions (AIs) that begin with MI-SP alone or MI-SP plus Texts on suicidal behavior 3 months post discharge, time-to-suicidal behavior and severity of suicidal ideation over 6 months; and (2) Determine the optimal sequence of intervention components.

Starting Date:  09/2021

 

Ewz Czyz, Ph.D.:  NIMH R34 Grant Award (MH124767)

Title: Developing text-based support for parents of suicidal adolescents after emergency

department visits: A multi-component intervention pilot

Major Goals: This study proposes to develop and pilot an adaptive, technology-augmented (i.e.

text messages) intervention for parents of adolescents at risk for suicide, targeting two

interrelated domains: (1) support parents in promoting the safety and well-being of suicidal

adolescents and (2) provide support and outreach for parents own well-being. The goal of the

intervention is to provide low-cost and accessible continuity of care support for caregivers

following emergency department services to optimize youth outcomes.

Starting Date:  12/2020

American Association of Suicidology 52nd Annual Conference

Adam Horwitz,* Alejandra Arango,* Claire Hatkevich,* Danielle Busby,* & more presented work at the AAS 52nd Conference in Denver, CO. 

*Pictured

Congratulations to our team members who presented at AAS this year. Works included: 

Wednesday, April 24th

Poster 115 - Text-based support for adolescents following psychiatric hospitalization. Ewa Czyz, Cheryl King, Nate Healy, Maureen Walton.

Poster 116 - Technology-augmented support for families of suicidal adolescents seeking emergency department care. Ewa Czyz, Nate Healy, Cindy Foster, Kimberly McManama O'Brien, Christina Magness, Cheryl King, Corey Jackson.

Poster 119 - Adolescent- and Parent-Reported Warning Signs for Adolescent Suicide Attempts. Alejandra Arango, Taylor McGuire, Polly Gipson, Ewa Czyz, Danielle Busby, Johnny Berona, Alexander Rogers, Victor Hong, Courtney Bagge, Cheryl King.

Poster 131 - Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training in the Child Welfare Workforce: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice Patterns Prior to and Following SafeTALK Training. Eskira Kahsay, Christina Magness, Seth Persky, Patricia Smith, Cindy Foster.

Thursday, April 25th

Paper 9 - Differences in Characteristics of Veteran and Civilian Suicide Decedents: A Sex-stratified Examination of the National Violent Death Reporting System Adam Horwitz, Dale Smith, Philip Held, Alyson Kay Zalta

Paper 12 - Challenges and Opportunities: Working Across the Spectrum of Suicide Prevention in a Rural Setting.  Sarah Derwin, Cindy Foster, Christina Magness, Patricia Smith, Emily Jo Pratt, Teresa Frankovich

Paper 14 - A Latent Profile Analysis of Chronic Life Stress in Ethno-racially Diverse Inpatient Adolescents. Claire Hatkevich, Francesca Penner, Ryan M Hill, Carla Sharp.

Paper 15 - Examining Barriers to Mental Health Service Use Among Black College Students at Elevated Risk for Suicide Danielle Busby, Kai Zheng, Daniel Eisenberg, Todd Favorite, William Coryell, Jacqueline Pistorello, Ronald Albucher, Cheryl King.

Panel 24 - Expanding our Definition of the Early Career Suicidologist: The Importance of Breaking Down the Silos. Mary LeCloux, Danny Gladden, Laura M. Frey, Polly Gipson.

Friday, April 26th

Paper 19 - Different Domains of Connectedness and Suicide Risk among Youth Victims of Peer Bullying. Alejandra Arango, Cheryl King, Polly Gipson.

Panel 63 - Understanding Proximal Risk for Suicide Attempts. Cheryl King, Courtney Bagge, Catherine Glenn, Ewa Czyz.

Paper 28 - Depression, Alcohol, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicide Attempts in Sexual and Gender Minority College Students. Adam Horwitz, Johnny Berona, Danielle Busby, Daniel Eisenberg, Kai Zheng, Jacqueline Pistorello, Ronald Albucher, William Coryell, Todd Favorite, Cheryl King.

Congratulations to Alejandra Arango!

Alejandra Arango successfully defended her dissertation defense titled, “Proximal and Distal Relations between Interpersonal Conflict, Social Connectedness, and Youth Suicide Risk”. 

Depression on College Campuses Conference

Danielle Busby, PhD,* Adam Horwitz, PhD, & Tim Mayer, BA* presented work on perceived barriers to mental health service utilization and suicide risk in racial, sexual, and gender minority college students at the DOCC conference. 

*Pictured

2019 Conferences

March 2019 Project Updates

Electronic Bridge to Mental Health for College Students (eBridge)  

eBridge is an NIMH funded online intervention that screens students for mental health concerns including elevated suicide risk and facilitates their linkage to mental health (MH) services. Following a web-based screen using standardized scales to identify students at elevated risk, eBridge offers students options for personalized online feedback and corresponding online linkage with professionals who are trained in MI and knowledgeable about university and community resources. We have recently concluded recruitment for Year 5 at four universities: the University of Michigan, the University of Nevada-Reno, the University of Iowa, and Stanford University. We enrolled 1,988 college students and will be sending out the 6-month follow-up survey to assess mental health service linkage during the Spring, which will wrap up our data collection for this 5 year study. We recently submitted a baseline manuscript titled Depression, Alcohol Misuse, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicide Attempts in Sexual and Gender Minority College Students. In addition to this, our team currently has 2 more eBridge manuscripts in preparation-one looking at associations of prescription drug abuse and other illicit substance use in college students with suicide risk and the other investigating associations of victimization and discrimination with mental health outcomes among sexual and gender minority college students and whether or not sexual/gender minorities who are also racial/ethnic minorities are at an even greater risk for negative mental health outcomes.

 

24 Hour Warning Signs for Suicide

This NIMH-funded project was designed to identify the warning signs associated with near-term risk for suicide. We have enrolled 1019 youth and families and recruitment is now closed. These teens are receiving biweekly text message surveys about their mental health status. 86 teens have completed more in-depth telephone interviews about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors within the 24-48 hours before a reported suicide attempt. Parents also complete a telephone interview about their observations of the teen’s behavior during the same 24- to 48-hour period. 164 case control interviews have also been completed!

 

Emergency Department Screen for Teens at Risk for Suicide (ED-STARS)

ED-STARS just concluded follow up interviews this month. A total of 4,050 participants were recruited and followed up at 3 and 6 month intervals. A total of 2491 3-month and 1134 6-month follow up interviews were conducted. This study was designed to validate the sensitivity of a computerized adaptive screen for predicting suicide attempts that was implemented in study one with 6,005 youths. Several working papers are now under way with this data. 

 

Developing An Adaptive Intervention for Suicidal Adolescents Following Inpatient Hospitalization: A Pilot Smart

The overarching goal of this intervention development study involving adolescents who are hospitalized due to suicide risk is to optimize a safety plan intervention and post-discharge text-based support for teens hospitalized for suicide-related concerns. This study is currently in the final stages of data collection for the first of its two study aims; the purpose of study aim 1 was to obtain feedback from adolescents about the content of the text-based support. Participant recruitment for the second aim of the study, a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) pilot, will begin in early March. 

 

Transforming Youth Suicide Prevention in Michigan (SAMHSA) Grant Team Updates

The PES Family Support and Follow-Up study aims to inform enhancements to crisis and emergency care for youth and families. At PES, we are recruiting 250-500 families to participate.  Youth ages 10-18 with any suicide-related risk factors are eligible. Recruitment into Phase 2 is ongoing - currently have 71 families enrolled in Phase 2 (staff training plus parent tool kit) in addition to 87 families in Phase 1 (baseline). Retreat with larger team took place on 2/27 to discuss Phase 3, tentatively marked to begin in May and will integrate text messaging support post ED discharge for parents of youth at-risk.

Child Welfare Collaboration. Screening Pilot– recruitment completed in December - 22 youth enrolled into study across three partner counties. Continuing to collect 3 & 6 month follow-up data. Staff surveys to be sent out in April to evaluate feasibility and acceptability of the pilot. Workforce Evaluation – safeTALK training manuscript will be submitted to the Child Welfare journal in April.

Youth-Nominated Support Team Intervention Associated with Reduced Mortality

New study suggests long-term mortality impacts of youth nominating 'caring adults'. 

Netflix’s ‘13 Reasons Why’ Associated with At-Risk Youths' Perceived Suicide Risk

Half of suicidal adolescent show viewers in an emergency department report that the controversial television series contributed to their suicide risk. 

Congratulations Dr. Polly Gipson!

Dr. Polly Gipson was awarded a three-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. Promoting Resilience and Outreach through Multi-tiered Interventions and Supportive Environments (PROMISE) for Success: A Trauma-Informed & Trauma-Responsive Community Intervention will be implemented in Ypsilanti. 

 

Nation’s Largest Suicide Prevention Organization Honors Dr. Cheryl King

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) presented Dr. Cheryl King with a research award for her work in youth suicide prevention at the 2018 Lifesavers Gala.