Citation

Gallagher CA, Dobrin A. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 2005; 44(5): 485-493.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/01.chi.0000156281.07858.52

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To provide a national description of suicide screening practices in juvenile residential facilities and to examine their association with whether facilities experience a suicide attempt.

METHOD: Multivariate modeling with data from the 2000 Juvenile Residential Facility Census (n=3690 facilities).

RESULTS: Controlling for facility characteristics, screening the entire facility population within the first 24 hours after arrival is significantly linked to lower odds of serious suicide attempts (odds ratio 0.23-0.65). Facilities screening just some of their population in a 2- to 7-day window after arrival exhibited significantly higher odds of serious suicide attempts (odds ratio 1.30-4.73).

CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that facility-level risks of serious suicide attempts may be reduced by screening every child and adolescent entering a juvenile justice facility within the 24-hour window directly following arrival, regardless of the facility size and whether the youths came directly from another facility within the system.

Language: en