Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Advance Access originally published online on September 20, 2006
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2006 6(4):295-307; doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhl011
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Program Evaluation of the Samaritans of New York's Public Education Suicide Awareness and Prevention Training Program
From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center (Matthieu, Knox), the Samaritans of New York (Ross), and the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center (Knox)
Contact author: Monica M. Matthieu, Senior Instructor and NSRA Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, 300 Crittenden Boulevard, Box PSYCH, Rochester, NY 14642. E-mail: monica_matthieu{at}urmc.rochester.edu.
The Samaritans of New York provide a public education suicide awareness and prevention training program focusing on suicide awareness and training in the skills and philosophy to befriend a person in crisis. Fifty-nine participants from a city department of human resources "helpline" to participated in a 3-hr employee training for information line service providers. Participants completed a pre/postmeasure of knowledge and efficacy to manage a caller in distress or in a suicidal crisis. The participants were predominately female (n = 52; 88%), 90% from diverse cultural groups, with ages ranging from 20 to 65 (M = 44; SD = 10.3). Results showed that participants scored significantly higher on measures of perceived knowledge about suicide and self-efficacy to intervene with a person thought to be at risk for suicide after training (M = 25.7, SD = 5.9) than before (M = 15.0, SD = 6.1) (t = 10.71, p < .0001). The training program increased the abilities, awareness, and confidence levels of people whose jobs it is on a daily basis to provide care, comfort, and support for those who are in crisis and at risk for suicide.
KEY WORDS: suicide, prevention, program evaluation, training, Samaritans