Dos and Don’ts in Designing School-Based Awareness Programs for Suicide Prevention
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Author(s)
Grosselli, Luna
Herzog, Kristina
Aseltine, Robert H
Balazs, Judit
Carli, Vladimir
Ciffone, Jerry
De Leo, Diego
van der Feltz-Cornelis, Christina
Hawton, Keith
Hegerl, Ulrich
Kolves, Kairi
Kutcher, Stan
Mehlum, Lars
Niederkrotenthaler, Thomas
et al.
Year published
2021
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Background: Despite the promising evidence for the effectiveness of school-based awareness programs in decreasing the rates of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in young people, no guidelines on the targets and methods of safe and effective awareness programs exist. Aims: This study intends to distill recommendations for school-based suicide awareness and prevention programs from experts. Method: A three-stage Delphi survey was administered to an expert panel between November 2018 and March 2019. A total of 214 items obtained from open-ended questions and the literature were rated in two rounds. Consensus and stability ...
View more >Background: Despite the promising evidence for the effectiveness of school-based awareness programs in decreasing the rates of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in young people, no guidelines on the targets and methods of safe and effective awareness programs exist. Aims: This study intends to distill recommendations for school-based suicide awareness and prevention programs from experts. Method: A three-stage Delphi survey was administered to an expert panel between November 2018 and March 2019. A total of 214 items obtained from open-ended questions and the literature were rated in two rounds. Consensus and stability were used as assessment criteria. Results: The panel consisted of 19 participants in the first and 13 in the third stage. Recommended targets included the reduction of suicide attempts, the enhancement of help-seeking and peer support, as well as the promotion of mental health literacy and life skills. Program evaluation, facilitating access to healthcare, and long-term action plans across multiple levels were among the best strategies for the prevention of adverse effects. Limitations: The study is based on opinions of a rather small number of experts. Conclusion: The promotion of help-seeking and peer support as well as facilitating access to mental health-care utilities appear pivotal for the success of school-based awareness programs.
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View more >Background: Despite the promising evidence for the effectiveness of school-based awareness programs in decreasing the rates of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts in young people, no guidelines on the targets and methods of safe and effective awareness programs exist. Aims: This study intends to distill recommendations for school-based suicide awareness and prevention programs from experts. Method: A three-stage Delphi survey was administered to an expert panel between November 2018 and March 2019. A total of 214 items obtained from open-ended questions and the literature were rated in two rounds. Consensus and stability were used as assessment criteria. Results: The panel consisted of 19 participants in the first and 13 in the third stage. Recommended targets included the reduction of suicide attempts, the enhancement of help-seeking and peer support, as well as the promotion of mental health literacy and life skills. Program evaluation, facilitating access to healthcare, and long-term action plans across multiple levels were among the best strategies for the prevention of adverse effects. Limitations: The study is based on opinions of a rather small number of experts. Conclusion: The promotion of help-seeking and peer support as well as facilitating access to mental health-care utilities appear pivotal for the success of school-based awareness programs.
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Journal Title
Crisis
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Author(s) Distributed as a Hogrefe OpenMind. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
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This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advanced online version.
Subject
Specialist studies in education
Sociology
Communication and media studies
Public health
Social work
Clinical and health psychology