SPONSORED RESEARCH: Implementation of a Suicide Prevention Package Co-Created with Lived-Experience Community Members in Ethiopia
April 1, 2025
Youth suicide is a global public health crisis, with an estimated 88% of all yearly suicide deaths among youths occurring in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In Ethiopia, national data indicates that 9% of the population experience suicidal ideation. However, there is a lack of culturally adapted, effective evidence-based suicide prevention interventions for Ethiopian youth. The Ministry of Health in Ethiopia has identified suicide prevention for youth as a key national priority.
A new grant from the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention provides for a new partnership between Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Medical Social Sciences faculty and team (Multiple Principal Investigator Rinad Beidas, PhD, Co-Investigator Amelia Van Pelt, PhD, MPH, Senior Research Coordinator Mallika Pandey, BA), Ethiopian Pediatric Society (MPI Muluwork Denberu, MD and Bogale Worku, MD), American Academy of Pediatrics (MPI Janna Patterson, MD), and Nationwide Children’s Hospital (MPI Jeff Bridge, MD). The team, in partnership with a community advisory board, will engage in systematic and rigorous community-engaged implementation science approaches to adapt a suicide prevention package including screening, safety planning, and psychiatric referral for implementation in four outpatient hospitals in Addis Ababa, Gondar, Jimma, and Haramaya. Colleagues leading the research in these sites include: Aneso Mohammed, MD, Oumar Harun, MD, and Zemene Tigabu, MD.
The team will deploy a pilot hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial to evaluate both clinical outcomes (e.g., prevalence of suicidal ideation and behavior) and implementation outcomes (e.g., reach, acceptability, feasibility) of the adapted suicide prevention package. With the long-term goal of reducing death by suicide among youth through increasing access to evidence-based practices, findings will provide insight for future scale-up of suicide prevention across Ethiopia.