Scottish Rite for Children was recently featured by EpicShare for its innovative approach to identifying and responding to suicide risk among pediatric patients.
Since 2021, Scottish Rite has screened patients 10 and older for suicide risk during clinic visits using the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ) tool. More than 143,000 screenings have been completed, helping the team identify 88 emergent cases in which a patient was actively considering suicide at the time of their visit.
Although Scottish Rite specializes in pediatric orthopedics and does not have an emergency department or psychiatry department, the organization recognized that a specialty care visit can provide an important opportunity to identify a child who may be struggling. Patients complete the brief screening electronically during check-in, and a positive response immediately alerts Scottish Rite’s behavioral health response team.
The response team includes mental health navigators — licensed clinical social workers who provide suicide risk assessment and immediate follow-up. On average, intervention protocols begin less than five minutes after a positive screening.
Jill West, Ph.D., director of psychology and a pediatric psychologist at Scottish Rite, told EpicShare that the team has come to view suicide screening much like checking a patient’s other vital signs.
“We can’t look at someone and tell that they’re experiencing suicidal ideation,” West says. “We need to screen everybody because we don’t know who’s struggling.”
The EpicShare feature explores how Scottish Rite developed the program, how the screening and response process works in practice and the impact it has had on patients and families.
To read the full EpicShare article, click here.
