11 research outputs found
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The impact of suicide prevention gatekeeper training on Resident Assistants
textCollege student suicide is a significant concern on university campuses and suicide prevention has become a focus for outreach intervention. While college counseling centers appear effective in helping students who present for treatment, suicidal students also seem to underutilize professional help. Gatekeeper training programs have emerged to help colleges and universities tap into existing student social networks to encourage early intervention. Gatekeeper training is a type of suicide prevention intervention used to encourage members of the university community to identify, engage, and refer suicidal students to professional help. Resident Assistants are often a focus of such training as they exist in the living environment of students and may be more able to identify student distress than other staff. However, the potential for adverse mental health impact on those RAs we call upon to help is not well understood and no studies to date have examined the impact of suicide prevention training on their mental health. Using data from surveys administered in connection with the participation of Resident Assistants in Suicide Prevention Training at The University of Texas at Austin, this study explores the mental health impact on RAs associated with their serving as gatekeepers. Multiple regression analyses were used to study the impact of intervention load, perceived role responsibility, the acquisition of suicide prevention content knowledge and perceived competency to perform the duties of a gatekeeper, and support-seeking behavior on the stress and distress of RAs over the course of a semester. Results suggest that RAs appear resilient to situational stress experienced with resident mental health interventions. RAs also appear to have considerable prior, personal experience with suicidal thinking and others who are suicidal. Additionally, they generally report not seeking support as often as they could, yet also increasingly turn to their co-workers in residence life for support. A repeated measures ANOVA analysis found that over the course of the semester RAs reported an increased threshold for engaging in interventions with residents and for seeking support for themselves. Implications for gatekeeper training and future research are discussed.Educational Psycholog
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The impact of suicide prevention gatekeeper training on college students
textDespite its potential to enhance the mental health of college student populations, the efficacy of gatekeeper programs in connecting suicidal students with professional help is unclear. Potential negative side effects of peer helping programs, such as gatekeeper training, are rarely examined and there is not a sufficient body of evidence documenting the efficacy or safety of peer helping programs, despite their widespread use. The challenge of implementing a safe and effective peer based gatekeeper campus suicide prevention effort lies in balancing the benefits of connecting suicidal students to professional help more often and sooner, with the potential adverse mental health impacts of participation on gatekeepers.
This study examines how a gatekeeper training program might increase suicidal student help seeking and measures the mental health impact of participation on Resident Assistants (RAs) trained in suicide prevention. This study will explore whether a more intensive helping role by the RA amplifies the effect of referring and securing professional help for suicidal students. This study also measures how differing the intensity of help provided by RAs impacts the gatekeepers’ own stress and suicidality levels. RAs will be trained under high versus low intensity helping conditions. RAs in the low intensity helping condition will be trained to identify potentially suicidal students and refer them for professional help. RAs in the high intensity helping condition will be trained to identify potentially suicidal students, engage them in a quasi-professional helping role, and refer them to professional help. This study will also explore whether promotion of telephone counseling as a helping resource will impact referrals to and utilization of professional help, either in-person or through telephone counseling.Educational Psycholog