JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Caring Contacts is a low-cost and low-resource suicide prevention intervention that involves sending a series of non-demanding messages that convey care and support. While Caring Contacts is well studied among veteran and adult populations, intervention implementation preferences remain underexplored for adolescents and young adults, especially regarding its delivery in primary care settings. As primary care providers are often constrained in their capacity to respond to the time-sensitive needs of these patients while they wait to be connected to specialty care, identifying if current technologies that can help alleviate these time barriers are acceptable among adolescents and young adult patients is an important next step.

Objective:

We evaluated the preferences of adolescents and young adults regarding the delivery of Caring Contacts. We also examined their perspectives on if and how artificial intelligence should be incorporated into the Caring Contacts intervention.

Methods:

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 adolescents and young adults who reported a history of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Interview transcripts were analyzed using qualitative coding techniques to evaluate their preferences and identify overarching themes.

Results:

Participants described a preference for receiving Caring Contacts via SMS text messaging, noting its perceived usability as the main contributor to this preference. While patient portals and physical letters were noted as other acceptable delivery methods, challenges to accessing them easily and in a timely manner made them less desirable compared to SMS text messaging. Regarding the incorporation of artificial intelligence into Caring Contacts, participants generally viewed these technologies negatively and with hesitancy describing it as potentially impersonal given the context of suicidality and wanting transparency if it were to be used.

Conclusions:

This study suggests that adolescents and young adults have distinct preferences for how they want Caring Contacts to be delivered compared to previously studied veteran and adult patient populations. Artificial intelligence may help address primary care provider time and resource constraints, but its implementation must carefully address the concerns raised by adolescents and young adults, particularly around transparency in its use and its perceived impersonal nature.