NCT06574633

ACEs Referral From PED

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Resource Referral Process in the Pediatric Emergency Department

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 62 (actual)
• Sponsor: Emory University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 12 Years – 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic exposures that can cause many negative health impacts across life. ACEs are common in patients who seek out care in pediatric emergency departments (PEDs); this is an opportunity to connect families with mental health resources to mitigate the effects of ACEs and improve lifelong health. The goal of this study is to determine if children with high ACEs have better rates of follow-up with mental health resources when a telehealth option is provided, as previous research has shown that simply making an in-person follow-up appointment is not very helpful.

Detailed description

Children 12-17 years old who are receiving care in a PED and their legal guardians will fill out a tablet-based electronic consent/assent and survey that takes no longer than 10 minutes to complete while waiting for treatment once they are in a private patient room. The study team will review the responses to identify children with ACE scores 2 or higher and contact the family to help them arrange therapy services. Patients will be randomized to in-person versus telehealth therapy. A few months after enrollment, the study team will contact the family and mental health team to find out if the family was able to keep their appointment to start mental health treatment. This will aid future research to identify if and how mental health treatment impacts these patients over the following years.

Conditions

• Adverse Childhood Experiences

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	In-person therapy	Participants will be referred to in-person therapy services when facilitating referral resources by a dedicated behavioral mental health specialist (BMHS).
BEHAVIORAL	Telehealth therapy	Participants will be referred to telehealth therapy services when facilitating referral resources by a dedicated behavioral mental health specialist (BMHS).

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-10-03
• Primary completion: 2025-01-09
• Completion: 2025-01-09
• First posted: 2024-08-28
• Last updated: 2025-04-25

Locations

4 sites across 1 country: United States