Enhancing motivation and self-efficacy for safety plan use: Incorporating motivational interviewing strategies in a brief safety planning intervention for adolescents at risk for suicide
Open accessAbstract
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among adolescents in the United States, and risk for recurring suicidal thoughts and behavior remains high after discharge from psychiatric hospitals. Safety planning, a brief intervention wherein the main focus is on identifying personal coping strategies and resources to mitigate suicidal crises, is a recommended best practice approach for intervening with individuals at risk for suicide. However, anecdotal as well as emerging empirical evidence indicate that adolescents at risk for suicide often do not use their safety plan during the high-risk postdischarge period. Thus, to be maximally effective, we argue that safety planning should be augmented with additional strategies for increasing safety plan use to prevent recurrent crises during high-risk transitions. The current article describes an adjunctive intervention for adolescents at elevated suicide risk that enhances safety planning with motivational interviewing (MI) strategies, with the goal of increasing adolescents' motivation and strengthening self-efficacy for safety plan use after discharge. We provide an overview of the intervention and its components, focusing the discussion on the in-person individual and family sessions delivered during hospitalization, and describe the theoretical basis for the MI-enhanced intervention. We then provide examples of applying MI during the process of safety planning, including example strategies that aim to elicit motivation and strengthen self-efficacy for safety plan use. We conclude with clinical case material and highlight how these strategies may be incorporated into the safety planning session. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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Motivational interviewing strategies may enhance adherence to youth safety plan use and parents' motivation to encourage safety plan use.
“Motivational interviewing strategies, which are often used to address health behavior change in pediatric primary care, may enhance adherence to youth safety plan use and parents’ motivation to encourage safety plan use.57,58”
From Evidence-based youth suicide prevention and intervention in pediatric primary care settings. (2024) · cites this paper as [58]
Safety plans increase self-efficacy and coping.
“Safety plans do increase self-efficacy and coping.57,58”
From Evidence-based youth suicide prevention and intervention in pediatric primary care settings. (2024) · cites this paper as [58]
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- Authors
- Micol, V. J., Prouty, D., & Czyz, E. K.
- Venue
- Psychotherapy
- Published
- 2022-06
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 174-180
- ISSN
- 0033-3204 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1536
- PMC
- PMC8799764
- OpenAlex
- W3185928637
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 2.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychotherapy (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (PDF-0-028-14)
- Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research
- National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH113776)
- University of Michigan
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Keywords
- safety planning, motivational interviewing, suicide prevention, self-efficacy, motivation, post-discharge care, psychiatric hospitalization, family intervention, adjunctive intervention
- MeSH terms
- Suicide Prevention, Adolescent, Aftercare, Crisis Intervention, Humans, Motivation, Patient Discharge, Suicide, Self Efficacy, Motivational Interviewing
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