Development of the inventory of clinician attitudes about suicide prevention

Mental health providers (MHPs) hold varying attitudes about suicide prevention, and these beliefs can impact personal and client well-being. To date, suicide prevention attitude measures are limited by appropriate population use, poor psychometrics and a lack of theoretical foundation. The present study rectified a measurement gap in the literature by articulating initial development of the Inventory of Clinician Attitudes about Suicide Prevention (ICASP).

MHPs (N = 410) across three countries (United States, Canada and Australia) took part in a cross-sectional online survey about suicide prevention competencies.

A community-engaged convenience sampling approach was used followed by splitting the sample to perform parallel exploratory factor analysis and item response theory analyses.

Analyses yield a four-factor ICASP with 22 items: (1) Clinician's Approach (ω = 0.79); (2) Clinician Avoidance (ω = 0.76); (3) Moral Rights (ω = 0.84); and (4) Clinician Comfort (ω = 0.72). Exploratory findings suggest convergent validity via significant, yet modestly sized, correlations with attitudes glorifying suicide and three elements of compassion fatigue (i.e. compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress).

The ICASP represents a promising tool for measurement of MHP suicide prevention attitudes in clinical supervision, self-reflective practice and training evaluation. Findings support portions of the Dynamic Balance Model of MHP suicide prevention attitudes. Future psychometric research directions are discussed.