Student Assistance Program Outcomes for Students at Risk for Suicide

• Published in: The Journal of school nursing Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 173 - 186
• Main Authors: Biddle, Virginia Sue, Kern, John, Brent, David A., Thurkettle, Mary Ann, Puskar, Kathryn R., Sekula, L. Kathleen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.06.2014; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Alcohol Education; At Risk Students; Correlation; Crime; Crisis Intervention; Drinking; Drug Use; Evidence; Female; Fisher Exact Probability Test; High School Students; Humans; Identification; Injuries; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Mental Health; Outcomes of Education; Pennsylvania; Prevention; Program Descriptions; Program Effectiveness; Program Evaluation - statistics & numerical data; Referral; Regression (Statistics); Risk; Risk Assessment; School Health Services - statistics & numerical data; School Nurses; School Nursing - methods; Self Destructive Behavior; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Substance Abuse; Suicidal Ideation; Suicide; Suicide - prevention & control; Suicide - psychology; Young Adult; Pennsylvania; United States > US; high school; screening; development; mental health; self-injury; program; crisis intervention; evaluation; safety; risk identification; emergency care; injury; quantitative research; prevention
• ISSN: 1059-8405; 1546-8364; 1546-8364
• DOI: 10.1177/1059840514525968

Pennsylvania’s response to adolescent suicide is its Student Assistance Program (SAP). SAP has been funded for 27 years although no statewide outcome studies using case-level data have been conducted. This study used logistic regression to examine drug-/alcohol-related behaviors and suspensions of suicidal students who participated in SAP. Of the 46 services, 10 best predicted (p < .01) that these undesirable outcomes would cease. Although no study subjects died by suicide, 42 of 374,626 referred students did die by suicide. Suicidal students who did not participate had double the rate of suicide of suicidal participants of SAP. Students referred for other reasons also killed themselves. Further work must be done to assess all referred students for suicide risk, examine educational outcomes, monitor substance-related crimes and overdoses, and examine school-related factors postmortem. Evidence from this study can be used by researchers to plan future studies and by Pennsylvania’s school nurses when planning services.