Implementing SAFE app in Denmark - a digital solution, co-produced with people who self-harm and their relatives.

Introduction: SAFE app - a digital solution, is co-created with people who have experienced self-harm. It contains teaching and calming down techniques that can support professionals, people who self-harm and their relatives in coping with challenging situations.
Aim: Implement SAFE app in Denmark and explore the effect on professionals.
Methods/ results: Local gatekeepers take care of the local implementations in all psychiatric hospitals in Denmark. An Advisory Board representing researchers, experts of Digital solutions and with lived experience of self-harm support the process. Participants is included if they have experiences with self-harm, either as a patient, next of kin or a health care professional.
Action Research follows the process (July 2023 to December 2024) in circular steps: 1: Information and aligning expectations. 2: Adjusting SAFE app and co-producing educational material. 3: Implementation. 4: Evaluation through: Focus groups, surveys and in-depth interviews of participant’s experience of digital solutions in healthcare.
Expected findings: Knowledge of: 1) the feasibility of SAFE app implementation, 2) how SAFE app can support usual care, 3) Healthcare professionals feeling of confidence in supplementing usual care with technology.
Conclusion: Action research, including systematic reflections and practical experiences, can strengthen the implementation and develop local knowledge, which, when co-reflected by users, can contribute to the creation of central knowledge about self-harm and technological solutions such as SAFE app. The study can supplement the adjustment of SAFE app and add to implementation science about the opportunities and challenges health care professionals face when they adopt technological solutions in care.