Integrating Smartphone Technology at the Time of Discharge from a Child and Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry Unit

Objective: As smartphone technology becomes an increasingly important part of youth mental health, there has been little to no examination of how to effectively integrate smartphone-based safety planning with inpatient care. Our study sought to examine whether or not we could effectively integrate smartphone-based safety planning into the discharge process on a child and adolescent inpatient psychiatry unit.

Method: Staff members completed a survey to determine the extent of smartphone ownership in a population of admitted child and adolescent inpatients. In addition to quantifying smartphone ownership, the survey also tracked whether youth would integrate their previously-established safety plan with a specific safety planning application on their smartphone () at the time of discharge.

Results: Sixty-six percent (50/76) of discharged youth owned a smartphone, which is consistent with prior reports of high smartphone ownership in adult psychiatric populations. A minority of youth (18%) downloaded the app prior to discharge, with most (68%) suggesting they would download the app after discharge. Notably, all patients who downloaded the app prior to discharge were on their first admission to a psychiatric inpatient unit.

Conclusion: Child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients have a clear interest in smartphone-based safety planning. Our results suggest that integrating smartphone-related interventions earlier in an admission might improve access before discharge. This highlights the tension between restricting and incorporating smartphone access for child and adolescent inpatients and may inform future study in this area.