Youth partnerships in suicide prevention research: A failed investigator survey

Abstract

Aim Youth suicide research stands to benefit from involving young people with lived experience as research partners; however, there may be a number of barriers to doing this successfully. The aim of this study was to identify the extent to which international youth suicide prevention researchers actively partner with young people in intervention research design, and to explore the barriers, facilitators and benefits to such engagement. Methods Ninety‐seven eligible researchers were identified using a systematic literature search and invited via email to participate in an online questionnaire. Results Only 17 participants (17.5%) at least partially completed the questionnaire, and minimal qualitative data were provided. Conclusions Analysis of the limited data together with the low response rate suggests that the rate of youth partnerships in suicide prevention intervention research is very low. Guidelines regarding how to safely and effectively partner with young people in this sensitive research area may help to address this gap.

Can a social media intervention improve online communication about suicide? A feasibility study examining the acceptability and potential impact of the #chatsafe campaign

“…A key strength of this study was that the intervention was entirely co-designed with young people [ 30 ]. Although the importance of co-design is becoming increasingly recognized [ 65 , 66 ], it is rare in youth suicide prevention [ 16 , 67 ]. In this study young people were active partners and this likely contributed to the acceptability, safety and impact of the #chatsafe intervention.…”

Interventions for youth suicide and suicide-related behaviour: An update to a systematic review

“…49 For most trials, there were also concerns relating to outcome measurement, often due to reliance on self-report instruments which may underestimate the prevalence of selfharm. 50 Additionally, despite consumer involvement increasingly considered best-practice in research, 9,10,51 only four trials (13.3%) indicated they partnered with young people, and this typically involved consultation rather than true co-creation (i.e., meaningfully partnering with consumers from the point of study inception through all stages of the research process). 52 Whilst the lack of highquality trials involving meaningful consumer partnerships is unsurprising given both (a) broader concerns about the potential impact of such partnerships on scientific rigour 53 and (b) the significant ethical and practical challenges associated with suicide prevention research, [54][55][56][57][58][59][60] it is disappointing the field has not progressed in the past 5 years.…”

Exploring adolescents’ perspectives on and experiences with post-primary school-based suicide prevention: a meta-ethnography protocol

“…One reason that patient and public involvement in research is gaining traction in recent times [ 29 ] is that interventions are more acceptable and suitable when target populations are meaningfully engaged in the research process [ 30 ]. However, meaningful adolescent engagement in PSSP research disproportionately lacks; for the most part, adolescents did not aid the design of or input on PSSP interventions in a recent review of studies investigating the impact of PSSP interventions on STBs [ 31 ] and partnerships between suicide prevention researchers and young people are sparse [ 32 ]. Adultism has positioned young people passively in research leading to lack of agency and space for young people to contribute to research meaningfully [ 33 ].…”