Assessing Suicide Risk in Adolescents With Developmental Delays: Development of a Screening Tool

Objective: Currently, no gold standard is available for evaluating suicidal thoughts and behaviors in individuals with developmental delay or intellectual disabilities (DD/ID). Moreover, youth with DD are often excluded from instrument validation studies. Therefore, there is a paucity of sufficiently adapted and validated clinical suicide risk assessments for use with clients with DD/ID. The main objective of this study is to develop and assess the efficacy of a suicide screening tool for child and adolescent clients with DD/ID. More specifically: Aim 1: To modify the Risk of Suicide Questionnaire (RSQ) in order to create a suicide screening tool for a pediatric mental health population with DD/ID. Aim 2: To determine the feasibility of a suicide screening tool, (developed in Aim 1) to detect suicide risk in pediatric clients with DD/ID presenting to a community health center for mental health reasons. Study population: The NIMH is collaborating with Surrey Place Centre, a community health center in Toronto, Canada. The study population will be Surrey Place Centre clients, ages 12 and older, diagnosed with DD/ID, currently accessing individual mental health counseling. There will be no exclusion based on gender or race. Design: This will be a prospective instrument development study. Potential participants will be identified by research assistants (RAs) and therapists. Following informed consent and assent procedures, therapists will administer the Risk of Suicide Questionnaire Intellectual Disability Patient (RSQ-ID-Patient), and the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire Child Version (SIQ-CV) to clients, and the RA will have the parents/guardians complete the Risk of Suicide Questionnaire-Intellectual Disability-Parent (RSQ-ID Parent). Three months after client participation, therapists will fill out a Therapist Follow-up Questionnaire. Outcome measures: Primary outcome measures include the RSQ-ID Patient, and the SIQ-CV, along with the RSQ-ID Parent. Secondary outcome measure is the Research Assistant Evaluation Form and the Clinician Follow- up Form.