Evaluation of the suicide prevention program in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, using the CIPP evaluation model

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Kaohsiung Suicide Prevention Center (KSPC) of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, during the period from June 2005 to June 2008. We used a modified CIPP evaluation model to evaluate the suicide prevention program in Kaohsiung. Four evaluation models were applied to evaluate the KSPC: a context evaluation of the background and origin of the center, an input evaluation of the resources of the center, a process evaluation of the activities of the suicide prevention project, and a product evaluation of the ascertainment of project objectives. The context evaluation revealed that the task of the KSPC is to lower mortality. The input evaluation assessed the efficiency of manpower and the grants supported by Taiwan's Department of Health and Kaohsiung City government's Bureau of Health. In the process evaluation, we inspected the suicide prevention strategies of the KSPC, which are a modified version of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy of Australia. In the product evaluation, four major objectives were evaluated: (1) the suicide rate in Kaohsiung, (2) the reported suicidal cases, (3) crisis line calls, and (4) telephone counseling. From 2005 to 2008, the number of telephone counseling sessions (1,432, 2,010, 7,051, 12,517) and crisis line calls (0, 4,320, 10,339, 14,502) increased. Because of the increase in reported suicidal cases (1,328, 2,625, 2,795, and 2,989, respectively), cases which were underreported in the past, we have increasingly been able to contact the people who need help. During this same time period, the half-year suicide re-attempt rate decreased significantly for those who received services, and the committed suicide rate (21.4, 20.1, 18.2, and 17.8 per 100,000 populations, respectively) also decreased. The suicide prevention program in Kaohsiung is worth implementing on a continual basis if financial constraints are addressed.