Geographical location of callers to a suicide prevention center: note on the evaluation of suicide prevention programs

Characteristics and effects of suicide prevention programs: comparison between workplace and other settings

The present study reviews the literature on suicide prevention programs conducted in the workplace and other settings, namely school, the community, medical facilities, jail, and the army, by conducting an electronic literature search of all articles published between 1967 and November 2007. From a total of 256 articles identified, various contents of suicide prevention programs were determined, and in 34 studies, the effect of programs was evaluated. A review of the literature reveals that the common contents of suicide prevention programs in the workplace and other settings are education and training of individuals, development of a support network, cooperation from internal and external resources, as well as education and training of managers and staff. Although the characteristic contents of suicide prevention programs at the workplace aimed at improving personnel management and health care, screening and care for high-risk individuals, as well as improvement of building structures, were not described. Although a reduction in undesirable attitudes and an increase in mental health knowledge and coping skills in the workplace are in agreement with findings in other settings, suicide rate, suicide-associated behavior, and depression, which were assessed in other settings, were not evaluated in the three studies targeting the workplace.

Does telephone counselling have preventive value?

Major developments in health care frequently result not from careful planning by professional health care providers, but from social processes whereby a heightened awareness of need leads to new strategies and resources for community support. The development of a network of hospitals in eighteenth-century England was 'the outcome of individual initiative and of coordinated voluntary effort and subscription'. The evolution of mental health care in the United States was influenced greatly by the enthusiasm and advocacy of reformers such as Dorothea Dix and Clifford Beers. The development of telephone counselling services, now an integral part of community mental health care, resulted from a recognition that the psychosocial stresses of twentieth-century life could perhaps be alleviated through support offered by telephone. This recognition has led to the mobilising of many thousands of volunteers who serve in hundreds of telephone counselling services worldwide. For telephone counselling as for many other new developments, the initial period of growth has been followed by one of reflection and evaluation. That telephone counselling services have earned a place in the community mental health network and are here to stay is beyond doubt, though the ways in which they can be used to greatest advantage are still being clarified. At the level of primary prevention there is as yet no convincing evidence that telephone counselling services have reduced the incidence of psychological disorder. It must be added, however, that mental health professionals have also had relatively little success in reducing the occurrence of psychological disorder, and only with carefully designed programs directed toward specific at-risk groups. The evidence is more encouraging at the level of secondary prevention.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Suicide and prevention centres

Summary

Suicide and parasuicide rates have been underestimated in the past although there is evidence to show that the individuals in the official statistics are representative of the suicidal population as a whole. Both medical and non-medical agencies are involved in suicide prevention and while their effectiveness is uncertain their efforts should be judged by the same criteria with the whole spectrum ideation taken into account.