Evaluating an Agricultural Community Suicide Prevention Program: Instrumentation and Impact

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Mental Health Research
• Agricultural Safety

Background:

• Community-based mental health programs are crucial for global suicide rate reduction.
• Evidence for the effectiveness of such programs in agricultural communities is limited.
• Farmer suicide prevention requires tailored, accessible interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a pilot community-based farmer suicide prevention training program.
• To assess changes in participants' willingness to intervene with individuals experiencing suicidal crises.
• To identify demographic factors influencing training effectiveness.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Kirkpatrick's training evaluation model.
• Employed a pre-post one-group design with consenting participants.
• Administered a revised Willingness to Intervene Against Suicide Questionnaire.

Main Results:

• Overall willingness to intervene increased by 0.21 logits (p<0.01) post-training.
• Significant pre-training differences in willingness to intervene were observed between genders and occupation types.
• Male participants showed a greater increase (0.43 logits) in willingness to intervene compared to females (0.096 logits).

Conclusions:

• The farmer suicide prevention training program demonstrated utility and positive impact.
• Program effectiveness varied by gender, with males showing more significant improvement.
• Recommendations include tailoring the program to address gender-specific needs and differences.