Citation

Nakagami Y, Kubo H, Katsuki R, Sakai T, Sugihara G, Naito C, Oda H, Hayakawa K, Suzuki Y, Fujisawa D, Hashimoto N, Kobara K, Cho T, Kuga H, Takao K, Kawahara Y, Matsumura Y, Murai T, Akashi K, Kanba S, Otsuka K, Kato TA. J. Affect. Disord. 2017; 225: 569-576.

Affiliation

Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Maidashi 3-1-1, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan. Electronic address: takahiro@npsych.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jad.2017.08.074

PMID

28886497

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Suicide is a crucial global health concern and effective suicide prevention has long been warranted. Mental illness, especially depression is the highest risk factor of suicide. Suicidal risk is increased in people not only with mental illness but also with physical illnesses, thus medical staff caring for physically-ill patients are also required to manage people with suicidal risk. In the present study, we evaluated our newly developed suicide intervention program among medical staff.

METHODS: We developed a 2-h suicide intervention program for medical staff, based on the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), which had originally been developed for the general population. We conducted this program for 74 medical staff members from 2 hospitals. Changes in knowledge, perceived skills, and confidence in early intervention of depression and suicide-prevention were evaluated using self-reported questionnaires at 3 points; pre-program, immediately after the program, and 1 month after program.

RESULTS: This suicide prevention program had significant effects on improving perceived skills and confidence especially among nurses and medical residents. These significant effects lasted even 1 month after the program. LIMITATIONS: Design was a single-arm study with relatively small sample size and short-term follow up.

CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that the major target of this effective program is nurses and medical residents. Future research is required to validate the effects of the program with control groups, and also to assess long-term effectiveness and actual reduction in suicide rates.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Depression; Medical resident; Medical staff; Mental health first aid (MHFA); Nurse; Suicide prevention