Citation

Wolk CB, Jager-Hyman S, Marcus SC, Ahmedani BK, Zeber JE, Fein JA, Brown GK, Lieberman A, Beidas RS. BMJ Open 2017; 7(6): e014407.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014407

PMID

28647722

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The promotion of safe firearm practices, or firearms means restriction, is a promising but infrequently used suicide prevention strategy in the USA. Safety Check is an evidence-based practice for improving parental firearm safety behaviour in paediatric primary care. However, providers rarely discuss firearm safety during visits, suggesting the need to better understand barriers and facilitators to promoting this approach. This study, Adolescent Suicide Prevention In Routine clinical Encounters, aims to engender a better understanding of how to implement the three firearm components of Safety Check as a suicide prevention strategy in paediatric primary care.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The National Institute of Mental Health-funded Mental Health Research Network (MHRN), a consortium of 13 healthcare systems across the USA, affords a unique opportunity to better understand how to implement a firearm safety intervention in paediatric primary care from a system-level perspective. We will collaboratively develop implementation strategies in partnership with MHRN stakeholders. First, we will survey leadership of 82 primary care practices (ie, practices serving children, adolescents and young adults) within two MHRN systems to understand acceptability and use of the three firearm components of Safety Check (ie, screening, brief counselling around firearm safety and provision of firearm locks). Then, in collaboration with MHRN stakeholders, we will use intervention mapping and the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to systematically develop and evaluate a multilevel menu of implementation strategies for promoting firearm safety as a suicide prevention strategy in paediatric primary care. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Study procedures have been approved by the University of Pennsylvania. Henry Ford Health System and Baylor Scott & White institutional review boards (IRBs) have ceded IRB review to the University of Pennsylvania IRB.

RESULTS will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescent; firearms; implementation; intervention mapping; means restriction; suicide