Exploratory Research Projects
The exploratory research projects funds short-term, preliminary research projects conducted by new researchers entering the field of injury control, and experienced injury researchers taking novel and creative approaches to existing research problems.
Exploratory research projects are chosen through a competitive peer-review process. The Columbia Center for Injury Science and Prevention partners with the Implementation Science Institute of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (CTSA) to select exploratory project recipients through their Intervention and Implementation Science Pilot Award opportunities.
This is a capacity-building opportunity to stimulate the development, testing, and implementation of innovative interventions.
Current and recent projects include:
Adapting the Suicide Safety Planning Intervention for Delivery to Adolescents in Primary Care Settings
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kathryn Lovero, Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health
A recipient of a 2020-2021 Intervention and Implementation Science Pilot Award.
In the present study, we will use a community-based participatory research approach13,14 to adapt and pilot test SPI for adolescents (SPI-A) delivered by non-specialists in Mozambican primary care. Specifically, our goals are:
Aim 1: To contextually and culturally adapt the Safety Planning Intervention for adolescents in primary care settings.
Aim 2: To evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of SPI-A delivered in primary care.
Lock and Protect: Reducing Adolescent Access to Lethal Means for Suicide
Principal Investigator: Dr. Ashley Blanchard, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (in Emergency Medicine) at Columbia University Medical Center
Suicide is the second leading cause of death in adolescents in the United States. Emergency Departments (EDs) capture an underserved population at high risk for suicide and provide an important but typically missed opportunity for adolescent suicide prevention. Providing lethal means reduction counseling in EDs may be an effective method to prevent suicide and suicide attempts in adolescents. The experienced research team has developed an ED-centric, tablet-based decision aid, Lock and Protect, that counsels parents and guardians on lethal means reduction and methods to appropriately supervise adolescents at risk for suicide.
Aim 1. Determine the acceptability and feasibility of implementing the Lock and Protect decision aid and the feasibility of conducting a future trial in the ED among parents whose adolescents are at risk of suicide.
Aim 2. Identify the potential short-term efficacy of Lock and Protect on home firearm and medication storage, and parental self-efficacy to prevent adolescent suicide.
Aim 3: Clarify the acceptability, feasibility, and barriers to implementing Lock and Protect among ED providers, to inform realistic strategies to implement Lock and Protect in the ED.