Marraccini – AFSP: School Re-Entry Post Psychiatric Hospitalization School re-entry guidelines for adolescents post hospitalization for suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Principal Investigator: Marisa Marraccini
Funding Agency: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Abstract

Adolescents hospitalized for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) are at extremely high risk for making a suicide attempt and nearly one third are rehospitalized within 6 months following discharge. Although schools are one of the primary post-discharge environments fundamental for maintaining hospital based recovery skills, remarkably few studies have examined school reintegration following psychiatric hospital discharge. This study provides in-depth characterization of the adolescent school reintegration process to identify critical information to be shared between hospitals and schools.

Key stakeholders within schools (i.e., principals, school counselors, school psychologists, and nurses) will complete surveys to identify existing protocols and supports targeting reintegration for these high-risk youth. In-depth interviewing (IDI) will be conducted with 30–40 school and hospital professionals across representative sites to identify facilitators and barriers to successful school reintegration. In order to better understand patient re-entry experiences, 20-30 adolescents previously hospitalized for STB and their parents will participate in IDI, and severity of STB will be measured with the Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Interview. Findings will be synthesized into school reintegration guidelines outlining critical information to be shared between hospitals and schools.

This research investigation involves the following aims and hypotheses:
(1) To identify and describe existing school-based protocols and procedures that may be used to support adolescents following hospitalization for STB. We expect to identify school-based services and re-entry plans that are a) generalizable across most school districts and b) unique to particular school districts based on resource availability and populations served.