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Citation
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Kimbrel NA, Aho NA, Neal LC, Bernes SA, Beaver TA, Hertzberg JA, Lutrey A, Leto F, Ostiguy W, Cammarata C, Meyer EC, Wilson SM, Dennis MF, Calhoun PS, Beckham JC, Stanley B, Gulliver SB. Crisis 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub. |
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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Recent findings indicate that firefighters may be at increased risk for death by suicide; however, there has been only limited suicide prevention work in fire service to date.
AIM: The objective of this program evaluation project was to develop and evaluate a web-based Safety Planning Intervention (SPI) training course for firefighter peer support specialists.
METHOD: Peer support specialists who completed the web-based SPI training were administered evaluation questionnaires before the training and then again at a 3-month follow-up assessment.
RESULTS: A total of 213 peer support specialists completed the SPI training. Most participants took 2-3 h to complete the training. Participants generally reported high levels of satisfaction with the course, with the vast majority (94.4%) indicating they would recommend it to their peers. Course completers also demonstrated significant gains in SPI knowledge and self-efficacy from baseline to 3-month follow-up (all p's <.001). Moreover, the percentage of participants who reported completing a safety plan with someone they suspected at being of risk for suicide increased approximately 7-fold from baseline (3.5%) to 3-month follow-up (25.2%; p <.001). Participants further reported that 97.6% of the safety plans that they completed resulted in a positive outcome. Limitations: This was a program evaluation project that did not include a control group. Thus, causality cannot be inferred.
CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that web-based SPI training is a feasible and scalable approach for training peer support specialists to deliver the SPI to at-risk individuals.
Language: en |