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Identification, Response, and Referral of Suicidal Youth Following Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training
Author(s) -
Ewell Foster Cynthia J.,
Burnside Amanda N.,
Smith Patricia K.,
Kramer Anne C.,
Wills Allie,
A. King Cheryl
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/sltb.12272
Subject(s) - referral , intervention (counseling) , psychology , active listening , identification (biology) , suicide prevention , clinical psychology , naturalistic observation , medicine , poison control , psychiatry , family medicine , medical emergency , psychotherapist , social psychology , botany , biology
Gatekeeper training is a public health approach to suicide prevention that encourages community members to identify those at risk for suicide, respond appropriately, and refer for clinical services. Despite widespread use, few studies have examined whether training results in behavior change in participants. This study employed a naturalistic pre–post design to follow 434 participants in A pplied S uicide I ntervention S kills T raining, finding small but significant increases in self‐reported identification of at‐risk youth, some helpful responses to youth, and numbers of youth referred to treatment from pre‐test to 6‐ to 9‐month follow‐up. Changes in active listening and helping behaviors meant to support treatment referrals (such as convincing a youth to seek treatment) were not observed over time. Additional analyses explored predictors of self‐reported skill utilization including identification as a “natural helper” and attitudes about suicide prevention.