Text-messaging Intervention to Support Parents After Their Child's Psychiatric Emergency

NCT ID: NCT06456762

Last Updated: 2025-11-10

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 90 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-08-01
• Study Completion Date: 2026-12-31

Brief Summary

This grant aims to develop and test a text-messaging intervention for parents of children and teens evaluated in the emergency department for a psychiatric emergency and discharged home with outpatient referrals. The intervention for parents will teach parents skills to navigate the mental health services system and build their self-efficacy in managing their child's mental health. This research has the potential to improve services for families seeking emergency psychiatric support, with the goal of facilitating treatment engagement and reducing emergency services utilization using scalable, cost-effective, accessible tools.

Detailed Description

Rates of emergency department (ED) visits for psychiatric emergencies in adolescents have increased substantially in the past decade, including for suicidality, self-harm, and aggression. A substantial number of these adolescents will be discharged home from the ED with referrals to outpatient mental health treatment. Yet, engagement in outpatient mental health treatment among adolescents is low, and rates of repeated emergency services utilization are high, highlighting the need for better supports for these youth and families. While effective, brief interventions have been developed to directly support adolescents at the time of their ED visit, no evidence-based interventions have been developed to support parents of these youth. Further, the period following an emergency visit is known to be high risk, yet no existing services support parents during the transition home, while waiting for connection to outpatient services. In this intervention development study, the investigators seek to iteratively develop, refine, and test an automated, text-messaging intervention for parents of youth discharged from the ED after a psychiatric emergency. The 8-week intervention (iPEACE; intervention for parent education after care in the ED) will directly target (1) parent mental health literacy and (2) parent self-efficacy, with the goal of reducing ED utilization and enhancing outpatient mental health service use and engagement. In the first phase of the study, the investigators aim to develop and refine the intervention with stakeholder feedback. Parents (N=15) will receive the 8-week iPEACE starting immediately following ED discharge. Parents will provide both in-the-moment feedback via text-message surveys and in-depth feedback at the end of the 8-week period via semi-structured qualitative interviews and self-report measures. The investigators will also conduct qualitative interviews with enrolled parents' children and key ED stakeholders. The investigators will use this feedback to refine the intervention materials. In the second phase of the study, the investigators will conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial (N=90), with n=30 parents randomized to enhanced usual care, n=30 randomized to enhanced usual care with text-message reminders, and n=30 randomized to receive iPEACE. Parents and their child evaluated in the ED will complete follow-up assessments at 4-, 8- and 24-weeks to assess key intervention targets (self-efficacy and mental health literacy) and youth outcomes (outpatient mental health service utilization, ED utilization, clinical symptom severity). The goals for the proposed project include: (1) developing and refining the iPEACE text-messaging intervention; and (2) piloting the iPEACE intervention compared to enhanced usual care only and enhanced usual care with text-message reminders to assess key study outcomes and mechanisms to inform a fully-power randomized trial. This R34 has important clinical implications, as findings from this study may support the testing and implementation of a digital health intervention to improve outcomes for high-risk youth and families. The proposed study has the potential to inform the provision of clinical services to support families during high-risk clinical transitions.

Conditions

Parents; Self Efficacy; Mental Health Literacy; Psychiatric Emergency

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

iPEACE: Intervention for Parent Education About Care after the ED

Parents in the iPEACE condition will receive an 8-week text-messaging intervention to build skills in mental health literacy and self-efficacy. Texts will be delivered several days per week over an 8-week period. The intervention is fully automated.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

iPEACE: Intervention for Parent Education about Care after the ED

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Automated texting intervention for parents to increase engagement in their child's outpatient mental health treatment over an 8-week period.

Text Reminders Only

Parents in the text-reminders only condition will receive weekly reminders to make an outpatient therapy appointment for their child. Texts will be fully automated, and will be delivered once a week for 8-weeks.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Text Messaging Reminders Only

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Weekly automated text reminders to instruct parents to make an appointment with their child's outpatient mental health provider over an 8-week period.

Treatment as Usual

Parents in the TAU condition will receive typical treatment in the emergency department, including outpatient referrals and safety planning if needed prior to discharge.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

iPEACE: Intervention for Parent Education about Care after the ED

Automated texting intervention for parents to increase engagement in their child's outpatient mental health treatment over an 8-week period.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Text Messaging Reminders Only

Weekly automated text reminders to instruct parents to make an appointment with their child's outpatient mental health provider over an 8-week period.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Parents or legal guardians of a child ages 11-17;
• Parents or legal guardians must live with their child ≥50% of the time;
• Child must be admitted to the pediatric emergency department for a mental health crisis;
• Child must be discharged home from the emergency department with referrals to outpatient care.

Exclusion Criteria

• Do not have daily access to a mobile phone that can receive SMS text messages;
• Do not speak and read fluently in English.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Margaret M. Benningfield

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Margaret Benningfield, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Locations

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Margaret Benningfield, MD

Role: CONTACT

margaret.m.benningfield@vumc.org

6156128324

Neil Chaturvedi

Role: CONTACT

neil.chaturvedi@vumc.org

6159339731

Facility Contacts

Margaret Benningfield, MD

Role: primary

margaret.m.benningfield@vumc.org

615-612-8324

Neil Charturvedi

Role: backup

neil.chaturvedi@vumc.org

6159339731

Other Identifiers

R34MH132711-01A1

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

231812

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id