title: Does a TV Public Service Advertisement Campaign for Suicide Prevention Really Work?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One of the critical measures in suicide prevention is promoting public awareness of crisis hotline numbers so that individuals can more readily seek help in a time of crisis. Although public service advertisements (PSA) may be effective in raising the rates of both awareness and use of a suicide hotline, few investigations have been performed regarding their effectiveness in South Korea, where the suicide rate is the highest among OECD countries.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a television PSA campaign.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed a database of crisis phone calls compiled by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare to track changes in call volume to a crisis hotline that was promoted in a TV campaign. We compared daily call counts for three periods of equal length: before, during, and after the campaign.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of crisis calls during the campaign was about 1.6 times greater than the number before or after the campaign. Relative to the number of suicide-related calls in the previous year, the number of calls during the campaign period surged, displaying a noticeable increase.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings confirmed that this campaign had a positive impact on call volume to the suicide hotline.
authors.affiliation: 1 Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.|2 Institute of Convergence Science, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: In Han
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: 1 Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jung-Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: You
authors.affiliation: 1 Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ji Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: 1 Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jung-Soo
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: 1 Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Se Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Psychiatry, Kangwon National University School of Medicine, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea.|4 National Chuncheon Hospital, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jong-Ik
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D006293:Health Promotion; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D066308:Public Service Announcements as Topic; D056910:Republic of Korea; D013690:Television; D000092864:Suicide Prevention
keywords: South Korea; TV public service advertisement; effectiveness evaluation; media campaign for suicide prevention; suicide prevention hotline