Toward Improving Treatment Adherence Among Adolsecent Suicide Attempters

Interventions in the emergency room are proposed as a means of enhancing treatment adherence among adolescent suicide attempers & their families. Pediatric physicians, psychiatric residents, psychiatric child fellows, nurses, security personnel, & admitting clerks can be retrained to increase treatment adherence by improving interactions between emergency room staff & the families, changing the families’ expectations regarding therapy & establishing a contract for short-term treatment with the attempters & their families. (44 refs.)