Identification, Response, and Referral of Suicidal Youth Following Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training

Gatekeeper training is a public health approach to suicide prevention that encourages community members to identify those at risk for suicide, respond appropriately, and refer for clinical services. Despite widespread use, few studies have examined whether training results in behavior change in part...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSuicide & life-threatening behavior Vol. 47; no. 3; p. 297
Main Authors Ewell Foster, Cynthia J, Burnside, Amanda N, Smith, Patricia K, Kramer, Anne C, Wills, Allie, A King, Cheryl
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 01.06.2017
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Referral and Consultation
Suicidal Ideation
Suicide - prevention & control
Young Adult
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Summary:Gatekeeper training is a public health approach to suicide prevention that encourages community members to identify those at risk for suicide, respond appropriately, and refer for clinical services. Despite widespread use, few studies have examined whether training results in behavior change in participants. This study employed a naturalistic pre-post design to follow 434 participants in Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, finding small but significant increases in self-reported identification of at-risk youth, some helpful responses to youth, and numbers of youth referred to treatment from pre-test to 6- to 9-month follow-up. Changes in active listening and helping behaviors meant to support treatment referrals (such as convincing a youth to seek treatment) were not observed over time. Additional analyses explored predictors of self-reported skill utilization including identification as a "natural helper" and attitudes about suicide prevention.
ISSN:1943-278X
DOI:10.1111/sltb.12272