UA Little Rock, AFSP Host Talk on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Research

UA Little Rock Counseling Services, in partnership with the Arkansas Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, will host a virtual talk on mental health and suicide prevention on June 29.

Dr. Marisa Marraccini, assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina, will give her talk, “Supporting Youth Returning to School Following Hospitalization for a Suicide-Related Crisis,” from 12:30-2 p.m. June 29.

“The immediate period following a psychiatric hospitalization for a suicide-related crisis is marked by increased risk for suicide-related behaviors and re-hospitalization,” Marraccini said. “Schools are a primary environment adolescents return to following hospital discharge, making them an important context for supporting adolescent recovery. Ultimately, school re-entry plans should be tailored to the unique needs of the returning student and their school.”

Based on findings from ongoing research to develop school reintegration guidelines, this presentation identifies considerations for returning students across a continuum of services, including:

• School supports and services to cultivate a positive psychosocial climate and address the needs of returning students.
• Hospital approaches that integrate consideration of school context into treatment planning and school reintegration into discharge planning.
• Enhanced communication between settings (e.g., hospitals, schools) and families to improve school reintegration experiences following psychiatric hospitalization.

Marraccini specializes in promoting the mental health and well-being of students and preventing health risk behaviors. Trained as a school psychologist, she became interested in supporting high-risk adolescents to prevent suicide and other health risk behaviors during her internship at a rural high school.

Recognizing a critical need to better support these students, she sought out advanced training in suicide assessment research through a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Currently, Marraccini is an Implementation Research Fellow through the Implementation Science Research Institute at Washington University of St. Louis.

Marraccini’s research aims to promote child and adolescent mental health in school settings. Currently, she is developing a virtual reality intervention to supplement inpatient treatment for adolescents hospitalized for suicide-related crises and leading research that partners with youth to develop and disseminate therapeutic skills by way of social media.

The talk is part of the AFSP Arkansas Chapter Research Connections Program, which informs the public about AFSP-sponsored research.

Those who would like to attend the talk, which is free and open to the public, may register for the event online.