About
The NIMH-funded Suicide Care Research Center (SCRC) is an interdisciplinary team working to improve the design and delivery of suicide care for adolescents and young adults in outpatient medical settings.
Main Challenge
Many adolescents and youn
g adults disclose their suicidality to providers who are not prepared to offer treatment and instead must refer to the emergency department when outpatient care is appropriate. This overwhelms medical systems and creates negative experiences for patients, their loved ones and providers.
Approach
This five year center will support 12 studies to improve the design and delivery of suicide specific care for suicidal adolescents and young adults in outpatient medical settings.
Studies will use human centered design and optimization methods to co-design interventions with healthcare providers, adolescent and young adult patients, and their families to make coordinated improvements across the suicide care pathway from assessment to treatment and recovery. The Center will conduct one full size optimization trial, three exploratory studies, and eight pilot studies.
Outcomes
- A recent published paper reviewed trends in suicide care policy and funding structures for suicidal adolescents and young adults, with recommendations for evidence-based policy to advance suicide care research in this population.
Questions?
Learn more by visiting the SCRC website or emailing uwscrc@uw.edu.
Citations
- Comtois, K. A., Salisbury, J., Clifton, R. L., Goldstein Grumet, J., & Adrian, M. (2025). Partnering with Policymakers to Design Suicide Care Research: Maximizing Impact in Adolescent Mental Health Policy. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23794925.2025.2491061