Attitudes Toward Suicide Prevention in Front‐Line Health Staff

Abstract

A questionnaire assessing attitudes toward suicide prevention was constructed and shown to have satisfactory reliability and internal consistency. The determinants and distribution of these attitudes were investigated in four groups of health professionals who are in contact with suicidal patients: general practitioners, accident and emergency nurses, psychiatrists in training, and community psychiatric nurses. Attitudes toward suicide prevention were shown to differ significantly between professional groups. More positive attitudes were associated with mental health professionals, working in the community, and previous training in suicide risk assessment. Negative attitudes should be assessed and targeted in training designed to improve the management of suicide risk.

Emergency department staff attitudes towards mental health consumers: A literature review and thematic content analysis

“…Here the findings were inconsistent. Whilst two papers found that more experienced staff had more positive attitudes towards mental health presentations (Commons-Treloar et al 2008, McAllister et al 2002, two other papers (Friedman et al 2006, Herron et al 2001 reported that years of experience was weakly correlated with more negative attitudes.…”

Measuring emergency department nurses’ attitudes towards deliberate self-harm using the Self-Harm Antipathy Scale

“…Antipathy for the self-harming patient and their care remains a significant barrier to improving care in the health care arena (Patterson et al, 2007a). There is a paucity of literature available regarding attitude change towards this vulnerable population (Herron et al, 2001) especially in Ireland.…”

Emergency department contact prior to suicide in mental health patients

“…In order to communicate the importance of psychosocial assessment and to ensure that assessments are conducted appropriately, ED staff may require specific training in how to deal with patients following self-harm 8 13 19 22. Training should also address any negative attitudes staff have towards self-harm as this can have a negative impact on assessment and treatment 2 15 23…”