Exploring Counselor Practices and Risk Assessment in a Proactive Digital Intervention Through Instagram in Young...

Area of Science:

• Digital Mental Health
• Adolescent Psychology
• Suicidality Intervention

Background:

• Suicide is a leading cause of preventable death in young people.
• Youth suicidality disclosure is evolving to include web-based platforms.
• Traditional mental health services rely on active help-seeking, unlike proactive outreach.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how counselors engage youth in proactive digital interventions.
• To examine risk assessment practices within digital outreach for suicidality.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 35 transcripts from counselor-youth conversations (ages 13-25).
• Utilized Braun and Clarke's 6-step reflexive thematic analysis.
• Included intervention and follow-up feedback chats.

Main Results:

• Seven themes emerged, including using microskills, building coping capacity, seeking permission, structured suicidality conversations, confidentiality, validation, and intervention identification.
• Counselors effectively translated traditional skills to digital contexts, using posts and emojis for rapport.
• Proactive outreach facilitated meaningful conversations beyond traditional risk assessment.

Conclusions:

• Counselor skills (listening, empathy, validation, empowerment) are transferable to digital text interventions.
• A structured, permission-seeking, validating, and confidential approach aids intervention identification.
• Proactive digital chat interventions are feasible, beneficial, and a novel way to support distressed youth.