Abstract
Educational posters are used to enhance knowledge, attitudes and self-confidence of patients. Little is known on their effectiveness for educating health care professionals. As these professionals may play an important role in suicide prevention, the effects of a poster and accompanying evaluation and triage guide on knowledge, self-confidence and attitudes regarding suicidal thoughts and behaviours, were studied in a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial, involving staff from 39 emergency and 38 psychiatric departments throughout Flanders (n = 1171). Structured self-report questionnaires assessed the knowledge, confidence and beliefs regarding suicidal behaviour management, and attitudes. Data were analysed through a Solomon four-group design, with random assignment to the different conditions. Baseline scores for knowledge and provider confidence were high. The poster and accompanying evaluation and triage guide did not have an effect on knowledge about suicide and self-confidence in suicidal behaviour management. However, the poster campaign appeared to be beneficial for attitudes towards suicidal patients, but only among staff from mental health departments that were assigned to the un-pretested condition. Given the limited effects of the poster campaign in the studied population with a relatively high baseline knowledge, the evaluation of this poster as part of a multimodal educational programme in a more heterogeneous sample of health care professionals is recommended.
Highlights
Suicide is a major global public health problem accounting for more than 800,000 deaths each year
There were no differences in the number of emergency and psychiatric departments assigned to each pretested condition (7 and 11 respectively)
“Test E is the preferred test of these three (Tests E, F, and G), primarily because of its greater power or ability to detect the treatment effect” [30] (p. 151). For staff of both departments, the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) showed no significant effects of poster campaign in Condition 1 and 2, the two pretested groups (F = (1, 7) = 0.117, p = 0.74; F = (1, 14) = 0.199, p = 0.66, respectively)
Summary
Suicide is a major global public health problem accounting for more than 800,000 deaths each year. Accumulating evidence shows that training and educating gatekeepers is a worthwhile investment in suicide prevention. Gatekeepers may play a pivotal role in the early identification, management and referral of suicidal patients [1,2,3,4]. They can be among the first to screen and intervene for suicide risk as they may be in close contact with suicidal individuals and have the opportunity to interrupt an ongoing suicidal process [5,6]. A broad range of both health and community professionals appear to benefit from education and training interventions [3,11,12,13,14]
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