Citation

Clark TR, Matthieu MM, Ross A, Knox KL. Br. J. Soc. Work 2010; 40(7): 2223-2238.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjsw/bcq016

PMID

28781389

PMCID

PMC5544031

Abstract

The Samaritans of New York public education suicide awareness and prevention programme is designed to train lay and professional staff on effective suicide prevention practices and how to "befriend" a person in crisis. However, little is known about the individual level characteristics of staff who attend these trainings. Community- and school-based staff (N=365) completed pre and post training measures of self-efficacy regarding their knowledge about suicide and suicide prevention and their ability to intervene with individuals at risk for suicide.

RESULTS indicate increased self-efficacy after suicide prevention training (M=3.7, SD=0.6) than before (M=3.3, SD=0.7) (t= -13.24, p<.05). Trainees with higher levels of education and previous contact with suicidal individuals were significantly more likely to indicate gains in self-efficacy after training.

Language: en

Keywords

Samaritans; evaluation; suicide; suicide prevention; training