Caring Contacts Via Text Message for Suicidal Adolescents After Emergency Department Discharge

July 8, 2026 updated by: Jennifer Hoffmann, Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Caring Texts for Adolescents to Reduce Suicide Risk

The goal of this pilot clinical trial is to learn if Caring Contacts (brief, hopeful, supportive text messages) can be delivered to adolescents with suicidal thoughts or behaviors after discharge from the emergency department, and to understand if adolescents find it acceptable to receive Caring Contacts. Researchers will also begin to explore how suicidal thoughts and behaviors change over time among participants who receive Caring Contacts along with treatment as usual, compared to participants who only receive treatment as usual.

All participants will be invited to answer survey questions when they first enroll in the study and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after their emergency department visit. Some participants will receive Caring Contacts (brief, hopeful, supportive text messages) after their emergency department visit. Some participants will be invited to complete an interview about their experiences receiving Caring Contacts.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

56

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Illinois
      • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611
        • Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 12 to <18 years of age
  • Present to the emergency department with suicidal thoughts or behaviors as indicated by the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ)
  • Have a cell phone that can receive text messages
  • Proficient in English
  • Anticipated disposition of discharge from the emergency department

Exclusion Criteria:

  • In care of the Department of Children and Family Services
  • Unable to participate meaningfully in assent, assessments, or the intervention, as determined by the treating clinician, including any of the following: acute or chronic cognitive impairment, acute psychosis, current severe agitation, current alcohol or drug intoxication

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Treatment as Usual
Treatment as usual consists of a suicide risk assessment during the emergency department visit, determination of disposition, safety planning, provision of crisis resources, and coordination of follow-up mental health services if indicated.
Experimental: Caring Contacts
In addition to Treatment as Usual, participants will receive Caring Contacts, consisting of brief, hopeful, supportive text messages.
Other: Caring Contacts Text Messages
Caring Contacts are brief, hopeful, supportive text messages.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) Self-Report Recent
Time Frame: Baseline, 1 Month, 3 Months, 6 Months, 12 Months
The Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) Self-Report Recent measures recent suicidal ideation and behavior on a scale of 0-5, with higher scores indicating greater severity.
Baseline, 1 Month, 3 Months, 6 Months, 12 Months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jennifer A. Hoffmann, MD, MS, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Northwestern University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

July 15, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 20, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 20, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

June 29, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 10, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 8, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2024-6680
  • K23MH135206 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

Data will be shared through the NIMH Data Archive

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Data will be made available 1 year after completion of the study

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Approval by NIMH Data Archive

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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