Bae: A Smartphone Application for a Better Following Adolescents at Risk of Suicidal Behavior: Study of Acceptability and Preliminary Results of Efficacy

Suicidal behavior among adolescents is a major public health problem. Exacerbation of suicidal risk most often occurs when the young person is in his or her natural environment, far from the health care system. Therefore, real-time risk detection would make it possible to deploy immediate action interventions. A smartphone application for personalized assessment and intervention would enable patients to better anticipate and manage suicidal crises and stay connected to the healthcare system. The increasing use of smartphones and mobile applications among adolescents supports the feasibility and value of such follow-up among young people. In a first phase of this project, investigators first undertook to develop bae: a smartphone application adapted to a population of adolescents collecting information on their suicidal behaviour in a contextualized manner, with the added benefit of offering emotion management modules as well as personalized psychoeducational messages and alerts delivered to young people in the event of a crisis. The application is intended to be a complementary tool to the usual treatment. Before testing its effectiveness and due to the novelty of the intervention, a rigorous feasibility study in a real clinical context is necessary to ensure acceptability and satisfaction with the use of the bae application. The objective is to evaluate, over a 6-month period, the acceptability of a follow-up of a population of 100 adolescents (12-17 years) at risk of suicidal driving via the bae smartphone application.