Family-based Crisis Intervention with Suicidal Adolescents in the Emergency Room: A Pilot Study
- 1 April 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Social Work
- Vol. 57 (2), 133-143
- https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/sws017
Abstract
The prevailing model of care for psychiatric patients in the emergency room (ER) is evaluation and disposition, with little or no treatment provided. This article describes the results of a pilot study of a family-based crisis intervention (FBCI) for suicidal adolescents and their families in a large, urban pediatric ER. FBCI is an intervention designed to sufficiently stabilize patients within a single ER visit so that they can return home safely with their families. Of the 100 suicidal adolescents and their families in the sample, 67 met eligibility criteria for FBCI. Demographic and clinical characteristics and disposition outcomes from the sample were compared with those obtained retrospectively from a matched comparison group (N = 150). Statistical analyses compared group inpatient admission rates and disposition outcomes. Patients in the pilot cohort were significantly less likely to be hospitalized than were those in the comparison group (36 percent versus 55 percent). Only two of the patients in the FBCI cohort were hospitalized immediately after receiving the intervention during their ER visit. FBCI with suicidal adolescents and their families during a single ER visit is feasible and safely limits the need for inpatient psychiatric hospitalization, thereby avoiding disruption of family, academic, and social activities and increasing use of less intrusive and more cost-effective psychiatric treatment.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- Emergency psychiatry in the 21st century: critical issues for the futureEuropean Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2008
- Former patients' experience of psychiatric care: A qualitative investigationInternational Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 2008
- The Community Intensive Therapy Team: Development and Philosophy of a New ServiceClinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2006
- Attenders of a university hospital psychiatric emergency service in BelgiumSocial psychiatry. Sozialpsychiatrie. Psychiatrie sociale, 2004
- One‐Year Follow‐up of Multisystemic Therapy as an Alternative to the Hospitalization of Youths in Psychiatric CrisisJournal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2003
- Youth Suicide Risk and Preventive Interventions: A Review of the Past 10 YearsJournal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2003
- A Rapid-Response Outpatient Model for Reducing Hospitalization Rates Among Suicidal AdolescentsPsychiatric Services, 2002
- The psychiatric emergency service: where we've been and where we're going.Psychiatric Quarterly, 2000
- Home-Based Multisystemic Therapy as an Alternative to the Hospitalization of Youths in Psychiatric Crisis: Clinical OutcomesJournal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 1999
- Investigating Family-Based Alternatives to Institution-Based Mental Health Services for South: Lessons Learned from the Pilot Study of a Randomized Field TrialJournal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1997