Association of Outpatient Crisis Services with Emergency Department Revisits in Suicidal Youth

Referral to outpatient crisis services for 3,125 suicidal youth is linked to fewer mental health-related ED revisits at 90 and 180 days, with aIRR values of 0.67 and 0.68.

• Why it matters: Pediatric ED visits for suicidal ideation and behavior have risen, creating a need for scalable outpatient options that can reduce repeat emergency use.
• What they did: In a quasi-experimental study (Oct 1, 2023–Aug 31, 2025), 3,125 youth were referred to outpatient crisis services or usual community care based on slot availability and clinician discretion, with propensity score modeling to balance baseline factors.
• The result: Referral predicts lower revisit rates at 90 days (aIRR 0.67; 95% CI, 0.56-0.81) and 180 days (aIRR 0.68; 95% CI, 0.59-0.80), especially for youth needing short-term hospitalization (aIRR 0.46) and moderate-to-high suicide risk (aIRR 0.49).

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