Adapting Youth Nominated Support Team (YST) to Prevent Suicide

The goal of this study is to conduct a pilot test of a mental health support program called the Youth-Nominated Support Team - Probation (YST-P) for young people ages 12-17 on probation, experiencing suicidal ideation and behaviors (SIB). Young people on probation experience SIB at higher rates than youth in the general population, but often do not receive the mental health care they need due to multi-level barriers. YST-P is adapted from an existing evidence-based, social support intervention, Youth-Nominated Support Team (YST), which is a psychoeducational, social support intervention originally created as an adjunctive to standard behavioral health (BH) treatment for youth with suicide risk following psychiatric hospitalization. YST-P is an adaptation of YST designed to meet the unique needs of youth on probation, addressing their SIB and increasing their uptake of treatment, by leveraging their existing social networks. YST-P is designed as an early intervention program to prevent escalation of SIB and increase probation youths' treatment uptake, bridging them to care. The study entails a single-arm pilot to examine reductions in SIB (within-subject comparison), and increased treatment uptake (comparing YST-P participants to a propensity-matched, historical control). This study will additionally explore theorized mechanisms of intervention action as well as implementation outcomes and barriers/facilitators to YST-P. The goal is for results from this study to inform a larger, fully powered effectiveness trial, as well as future studies leveraging youths' existing social support networks to prevent SIB and bridge them to care.