Rates of emergency department (ED) presentations for self-injury and suicide crisis (harm thoughts, feelings, or behaviours) have been increasing globally. Parents play a crucial role in assisting an adolescent in suicide crisis to access professional healthcare, including emergency intervention. Parents can play a critical role in supporting their adolescent child during and after an ED presentation. Understanding parents’ experiences may help adolescents receive appropriate parental support after discharge, potentially reducing future instances of suicide crisis. Yet, no studies have explored this. As such, we sought to explore this unique experience through a qualitative exploration of parents’ experiences in the ED.
Twenty interviews were conducted between February and May 2023, with parents from across Australia who had attended an ED with their adolescent who was in suicide crisis. The interview guide was created in consultation with six lived experience advisors, three of whom assisted with the interviews and analysis. A Reflexive Thematic Analysis is being conducted as this approach places value on the perspective of those conducting the analysis, particularly the lived experience perspective, alongside the perspective of the participants.
Preliminary analysis indicates that parents are already in a state of distress about the suicide crisis before attending the ED, and the ED visit exacerbates this distress. Parents felt that ED staff prioritised medical aspects of the presentation (e.g., attending to injuries) over psychological aspects, and often discharged the adolescent without any mental health care or aftercare support. Parents identified that the ED experience added more trauma to an already distressed child. Worryingly, despite parents being expected to provide ongoing care after discharge, parents were not provided sufficient education or resources by the hospital to do so. Parents recognised that they could not provide necessary care to their child while in a state of panic and distress themselves, and felt that compassion, respect and understanding from hospital staff would have helped them to better cope through this difficult time.
It may be beneficial for EDs to treat the parent and child as a unified presentation as this is likely to increase parents’ confidence that they can continue to provide the necessary ongoing care after discharge. More research is needed to help understand what supports parents are being provided and what would be helpful from their perspective. By better equipping parents, we can hopefully improve outcomes for adolescents and reduce the demand on our emergency healthcare system.