STUDY PROTOCOL article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
This article is part of the Research TopicMultidimensional Approaches to Suicide Prevention: Innovations, Challenges, and Future DirectionsView all 23 articles
Ethics in Qualitative Research: Developing a Suicide Safety Protocol for Youth Facing Mental Health and Substance Use Challenges
Provisionally accepted
Asantewaa Darkwa1,2*
Colleen Smith3
Wendy Avila Rodriguez3
Brittany Jean Taylor3
Susan McLaren3
Lynn Honeycutt4Kristal Davidson5- 1University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, United States
- 2Department of Human Development Nursing Science, College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States
- 3Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- 4View Point Health, Atlanta, United States
- 5Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
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Qualitative methods have demonstrated immense value informing social and health policy and practice. While qualitative researchers accept the duty of minimizing harm and reducing research-related distress, examples of risk management protocols in non-clinical settings are limited. When they do exist, recommendations are mixed on the approaches necessary to safeguard research participants who report experiences of suicidal thoughts. All individuals can experience emotional distress regardless of the topic being studied, or a group's categorically known risk or rate of suicidal ideation and behavior. Therefore, a preparation and prevention approach should be taken to support suicide safety among all participants where interviewers are experienced and trained on the process and procedures to follow in the event an interviewee expresses past or current thoughts or behaviors of suicide. The current manuscript describes the process taken to develop a suicide safety protocol specifically for a community-based youth substance use recovery program. Acknowledging the prevalence and influence of risk factors with increased rates of suicide among youth and adolescents in recovery, we describe the process taken to enhance an existing interview protocol and trauma-informed interview guide with an accompanying suicide safety protocol. We recommend other researchers follow a similar process to determine whether their study and population would benefit from an accompanying suicide safety protocol and take the steps needed to tailor it to the specific strengths and needs of their study and participants.
Keywords: adolescents6, Qualitative2, research ethics3, substance use4, suicide1, youth5
Received: 21 Mar 2025; Accepted: 27 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Darkwa, Smith, Avila Rodriguez, Jean Taylor, McLaren, Honeycutt and Davidson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Asantewaa Darkwa
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