Anna Bickersteth
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Lindsay Bornheimer
Research Mentor School/College/Department: / Social Work
Program:
Authors: Anna Bickerseth, Nicholas Brdar, Lindsay Bornheimer
Session: Session 1: 9:00 am – 9:50 am
Poster: 58
Abstract
Despite suicide being one of the most prevalent public health issues facing our society today, risk and protective factors associated with suicide risk for adolescents and young adults who are within transitional ages are not well documented or understood. The goal of this study is to examine risk and protective factors of suicide, advance theories of suicide, understand how to best respond to suicide attempt and ideation, and better inform future evidence-based screening tools and interventions in mental health care. The present study will use SPSS28 to analyze data from electronic medical records of patient ages 14-29 who present to Michigan Medicine following a suicide attempt. The goal is to better understand static, modifiable, and imminent risk factors (demographics, family life, history of abuse, prior diagnoses, history of suicidal behavior, etc.) in relation to overall risk level (low/medium/high), as well as overall risk level with length of hospital stay. Exploratory findings highlight certain risk factors that are of higher prevalence in patients with certain overall risk levels. Additionally, findings show a significant difference in length of hospital stay across risk groupings with the high risk level being the longest (8.5 days) in comparison to moderate (4.7 days) and low risk (5 days). This research is valuable due to its potential for informing better preventative and treatment practices, specifically in training clinicians to better conduct overall risk assessments using risk factor prevalence rather than personal discretion. Further research is needed to understand the predictability of the overall risk assessment for future suicide attempts.
