Does a brief training on suicide prevention among general hospital personnel impact their baseline attitudes towards suicidal behavior?
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate a brief training program on suicide prevention for front-line general hospital personnel in terms of its impact on their attitudes and beliefs towards suicidality.


METHODS
Forty non-clinical (e.g., security staff), and 102 clinical (e.g., nursing attendants) professionals employed in a university hospital in Brazil were evaluated with the Suicide Behavior Attitude Questionnaire [SBAQ] before the start and immediately after a 3-hour training on suicide prevention.


RESULTS
Surprisingly, there were no significant differences for the great majority of the SBAQ items (i.e., 20 of 21) between clinical and non-clinical staff both pre- and post-training. Furthermore, their attitudes and beliefs towards suicidality were significantly improved after training in the majority of SBAQ items, with p-values ranging from 0.01 to <0.0001.


CONCLUSIONS
Relatively small sample size, and absence of a randomized controlled design and long-term follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study suggests that attitudes and beliefs of clinical and non-clinical general hospital personnel towards suicidality were unexpectedly similar, and reinforces the need for suicide awareness training programs in the general hospital setting. Additionally, we have shown that it is feasible to provide such basic knowledge concerning suicidal behavior to this specific population. This is particularly important for the development of suicide prevention programs in under-resourced countries. However, our results are preliminary, and further studies are needed to address a number of important questions in the field.
Berlim
Marcelo T
MT
Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Service of Psychiatry, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. mberlin@videotron.ca
Perizzolo
Juliana
J
Lejderman
Fernando
F
Fleck
Marcelo P
MP
Joiner
Thomas E
TE
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods; D013997:Time Factors; D000092864:Suicide Prevention