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Young Adult Nominated Support Teams for Young Adults at High Risk for Suicide

In the State of Michigan, young adult suicide is now the second leading cause of death. Just as concerning is a recently released survey of teenagers in Washtenaw County, it showed that approximately 15 percent of these young people had seriously considered suicide during the previous year. Despite the increasing prevalence of suicide among young adults, there is a paucity of effective interventions for young adults with elevated suicide risk. As an important step forward, however, the University of Michigan recently reported that the addition of a Youth Adult-Nominated Support Team (YAST) to usual care for suicidal adolescents was associated with decreased long-term mortality (King et al., 2019). Specifically, University of Michigan found a 6.6 –fold higher risk of death for adolescents who did not receive Youth-Nominated Support Team intervention, with a confidence interval suggesting at least a 50% reduction in mortality for adolescents in the YST group. This project brings behavioral health organizations together to provide this evidence-based intervention to a young adult population (ages 18-28), who have been recently discharged from a mental health unit where they were treated for major depression and suicidal ideation. This project will replicate the Young Adult-Nominated Support Team (YAST) intervention for a young adult population (ages 18-28). Each young adult nominates four care-support adults from their family and/or community, who attend educational sessions to discuss the young adult’s treatment plan and optimize communication. Care-support adults are taught the suicide warning signs, and become well informed of local emergency services. Weekly telebehavioral health sessions and follow up phone calls with the care-support adults by the professional staff focus on how the care-support adults can support the participants’ treatment adherence and positive behavioral choices. Referrals will come from behavioral health units at the University of Michigan, St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, Chelsea Hospitals and CARES (Washtenaw County Community Mental Health program) and the UM Psychological Clinic. Though most participants will be from Washtenaw County, young adults residing in contiguous counties (Wayne, Livingston, Lenawee, Jackson and Oakland) who have been recently discharged from one of these hospitals will also be accepted into this program. We would expect that many of the nominated caring adults will reside in many different counties in Michigan. This project will replicate the YST intervention for a young adult population (ages 18-28). Each young adult nominates four care-support adults from their family and/or community, who attend educational sessions to discuss the young adult’s treatment plan and optimize communication. Care-support adults are taught the suicide warning signs, and become well informed of local emergency services. Weekly telebehavioral health session and follow up phone calls with the care-support adults by the professional staff focus on how the care-support adults can support the participants’ treatment adherence and positive behavioral choices. This project provides evidence based preventative intervention for a marginalized and underserved young adult population and enhances access to mental health services for young adults struggling with suicidality. Individual Impact: 50 young adults (ages 18-28) will enter the program. Each young adult will nominate four adults care-support providers. In total, 250 adults will be positively impacted by this project.

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