AKRON — Akron Children’s has joined a global collaborative of children’s hospitals working to pool data and strengthen suicide screening for young people, an effort spanning hospital systems in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The hospital is reviewing its own screening protocol as part of the initiative and working to make suicide screening a routine part of care. Dr. Eva Szigethy, who leads pediatric psychiatry and behavioral health at Akron Children’s, serves on the national steering committee for the collaborative.
Leaders of the effort say pooling data across many hospitals could help clinicians spot patterns in suicide risk earlier, since risk can grow out of many different factors, from life stressors to trauma history to social and demographic circumstances. Szigethy also meets monthly with behavioral health representatives from other Ohio hospitals to share data.
Akron Children’s has also partnered with Sonar Mental Health, which provides round-the-clock text-based well-being support. The service is expected to become available within the year to all young patients with behavioral health needs.
The work builds on a recent expansion of the hospital’s inpatient behavioral health unit, which moved to the Kay Jewelers Pavilion and can now serve up to 40 patients at a time, up from 24 beds previously. The unit cares for patients ages 5 up to 18 across regular acute care, high acute care and crisis stabilization levels.
Organizers hope the collaborative can produce a unified national approach to youth suicide screening within the next five years, then make that approach available more widely around the world.
