Rationale for Accreditation Criteria for the MATES in Construction Workplace Suicide Prevention Program

MATES in Construction originated in Australia as a workplace suicide prevention program for predominantly male, blue-collar industries with high suicide rates. Accreditation criteria were developed for the purpose of providing recognition for participating sites and promoting the program. Arising from an internal review of the MATES accreditation criteria, this article presents the purpose and history of MATE's accreditation criteria; the rationale and evidence underpinning the accreditation criteria; and the evolving practice of accreditation in the MATES context.Four accreditation criteria are specified, addressing the 3 levels of the prevention and early treatment spectrum for mental health and illness interventions (universal/selective/indicated): (1) All the available workforce on a work site must be offered General Awareness Training (GAT, universal); (2) Following initial GAT training, at least 80% of the workforce is GAT trained (universal); (3) All workers must have a "line of sight" to a worker/volunteer trained in how to connect people to help (selective); (4) the work site must be able to access an Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Trained person during operational hours (indicated).MATES programs continue to evolve, possibly warranting additional accreditation criteria in the future to acknowledge the implementation of increasingly comprehensive programs.The extent to which the MATES justification for and approach to accreditation is generalizable to other contexts is not known; however, the underlying principles and rationale provided are likely adaptable in other contexts.