A Novel Approach to Universal Suicide Prevention Using Digital Interventions

Body of Abstract: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth age 10-19 in the USA. While evidence supports the efficacy of several universal prevention programs in reducing youth suicidal behaviors in schools and communities, existing programing has not been sufficient to meet the mental health needs of the population as a whole. Barriers such as accessibility, limited availability of providers, treatment costs, and lack of willingness to engage in treatment hinder people's access to needed care. In recent years, Digital Mental Health Interventions (DMHIs) have shown promise as a novel approach to provide effective mental health interventions while reducing barriers to care. Despite their potential, many DMHIs experience high rates of attrition and disengagement, and their use as a model for suicide prevention has been minimally explored. In response, our team developed an innovative web-based suicide prevention program for youth in Ohio called Be Present Ohio: The Online Experience. The program was designed using evidence-based best practices for maximizing engagement and skill retention in DMHIs combined with guidance from implementation science principles to adapt established youth suicide prevention best practices in a novel format. This universal prevention program was launched in January 2024 and is accessible to schools and youth serving community organizations. Quality improvement efforts are in progress to ensure implementation fidelity by facilitators, a consistent user experience with technology, and youth perceptions of acceptability and outcomes using an imbedded pre- post- learner survey. Our work on process improvement and fidelity are currently ongoing. To date, 308 youth have completed the program since launch with several hundred more scheduled to participate in the next four months.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain core best-practices in the design and promotion of youth engagement with digital mental health interventions.
• Analyze the use of best-practices in the implementation of a newly developed digital universal suicide prevention program for youth to maximize reach, knowledge gains, and personalized coping tools through gamification.
• Apply feedback and data from digital programing to identify quality improvement initiatives for digital interventions.