Establishing a research agenda for child and adolescent safety planning

Safety planning has been shown to reduce suicide risk and days in inpatient care among adults, but few studies have investigated how safety planning influences suicide-related outcomes among at-risk children and adolescents. This lack of research presents several avenues of research for researchers to explore. Aiming to establish a research agenda for safety planning research among youth, this paper outlines three areas of need in the research literature: 1) Facilitators and barriers influencing the use of safety plans among youth; 2) Parental involvement and parent-professional collaboration; and 3) Novel methods for safety planning development, modification, and application