As part of this study, we conducted key informant interviews to explore the health care delivery system for factors that appear to hinder and facilitate effective services and treatment for this at‐risk population. Suicide attempts and self‐injury make up an increasing proportion of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for self‐harm (Larkin, Smith, & Beautrais, 2008). As many as one in 10 deaths by suicide are by people who had been seen in the emergency department within 2 months of their death (Knesper et al., 2011). Given this strong association (Larkin & Beautrais, 2010), we focused the key informant interviews on a tertiary care emergency department and the care continuum that ideally flows from this initial site of care. We selected a university‐based teaching hospital and interviewed representatives of each of the following service functions: emergency department, inpatient psychiatric unit, psychiatric emergency services, inpatient consult psychiatric team, and community mental health provider (N = 5). To guide the interviews, we developed a semistructured interview guide. Key domains of inquiry included: existing care process, barriers to effective care delivery, and interventions for
