WeCare: A System of Care for Black Youth

The overall goal of this study is to respond to the urgent need for an effective suicide prevention strategy for Black youth by examining the effectiveness of a systems-level strategy to recognize and respond to suicide risk among Black adolescents who present to emergency departments (EDs). The proposed strategy, WeCare, combines combines three components: (1) universal screening using the Computerized Adaptive Screen for Suicidal Youth (CASSY), (2) a brief intervention designed for Black youth with elevated suicide risk in for ED settings, Connections for Safety (CFS), that combines safety planning and strategies to support linkage to outpatient mental health services, and (3) supportive text messages to youth and parent/caregivers for six weeks following the youth's ED visit. Study objectives are (1) to integrate input from multiple stakeholders to inform and facilitate WeCare implementation, and (2) to use a hybrid one effectiveness-implementation design to evaluate its effectiveness.

Inclusion criteria adolescent and parent/guardians: * Adolescents aged 12-17 years and their parents or guardians, and adolescents 18-19 years who have the option for their parent or guardian to participate * Having a parent/caregiver present in the ED to consent or available to consent remotely (12-17 year olds, only) * Having a cellular phone with text messaging capacity * Adolescent able to speak English, and understand study questions * Parents able to consent in English, Spanish, French or Creole * Meet screening criteria Exclusion criteria adolescent and parent/guardians: * Adolescent is medically unstable * Adolescent present with severe cognitive impairment * Parents are not present in the ED, unable to consent remotely, and not able to give consent in either English, Spanish, French or Creole (12-17 year olds, only) * Adolescent does not have access to cellular phone * Adolescents active in mental health treatment (e.g., seen a therapist, social worker, or mental health provider in the last week)