Youth partnerships in suicide prevention research: A failed investigator survey.

ABSTRACT

AIM: Youth suicide research stands to benefit from involving young people with lived experience as research partners; however, there may be a number of barriers to doing this successfully. The aim of this study was to identify the extent to which international youth suicide prevention researchers actively partner with young people in intervention research design, and to explore the barriers, facilitators and benefits to such engagement. METHODS: Ninety-seven eligible researchers were identified using a systematic literature search and invited via email to participate in an online questionnaire. RESULTS: Only 17 participants (17.5%) at least partially completed the questionnaire, and minimal qualitative data were provided. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of the limited data together with the low response rate suggests that the rate of youth partnerships in suicide prevention intervention research is very low. Guidelines regarding how to safely and effectively partner with young people in this sensitive research area may help to address this gap.