Effectiveness of Depression–Suicidal Behaviour Gatekeeper Training among police officers in three European regions: Outcomes of the Optimising Suicide Prevention Programmes and Their Implementation in Europe (OSPI-Europe) study

Abstract

Background: Gatekeeper training for community facilitators, to identify and respond to those at risk of suicide, forms an important part of multi-level community-based suicide prevention programmes. Aims: This study examined the effects of gatekeeper training on attitudes, knowledge and confidence of police officers in dealing with persons at risk of suicide. Methods: A total of 828 police officers across three European regions participated in a 4-hour training programme which addressed the epidemiology of depression and suicidal behaviour, symptoms of depression, warning signs and risk factors associated with suicidal behaviour, motivating help-seeking behaviour, dealing with acute suicidal crisis and informing bereaved relatives. Participants completed internationally validated questionnaires assessing stigmatising attitudes, knowledge about depression and confidence in dealing with suicidal persons pre-and posttraining. Results: There were significant differences among countries in terms of previous exposure to suicidal persons and extent of previous training. Post-training evaluation demonstrated significant improvements in stigmatising attitudes, knowledge and confidence in all three countries. Conclusion: The consistently positive effects of gatekeeper training of police officers across different regions support inclusion of this type of training as a fundamental part of multi-level community-based suicide prevention programmes and roll-out, nationally and internationally.

Improving Suicide Prevention in Dutch Regions by Creating Local Suicide Prevention Action Networks (SUPRANET): A Study Protocol

“…Gatekeeper training programs are recognized as a successful component in multiple intervention projects [11]. Community gatekeepers are trained to identify suicidal risk, to make contact and “open the gates” for help seeking behaviour [12,13].…”

Suicide prevention gatekeeper training in the Netherlands improves gatekeepers’ knowledge of suicide prevention and their confidence to discuss suicidality, an observational study

“…Some multi-level interventions on suicide prevention have been extensively studied and show promising results [ 7 – 15 ]. A desirable effect of gatekeeper trainings as part of such a program can be found in several studies [ 11 , 16 – 19 ], showing a progressive reduction in suicide rates in the intervention communities. The effects of the training itself though, are difficult to discern since they were part of these multi-layered intervention programs.…”

“…In most studies, knowledge improvement is a convincing outcome of the gatekeeper training [ 16 , 24 – 29 ] as well as improved self-efficacy [ 25 , 28 , 30 , 31 ] and confidence to act when in contact with a suicidal person [ 16 , 24 , 27 , 32 ]. Furthermore, gatekeeper training seems beneficial in referring youth to appropriate services, especially within school-based settings [ 33 , 34 ].…”

“…Despite differences in training methodology, duration, content and target group, the general goal of gatekeeper training is to learn how to respond to a suicidal person by starting a “caring dialogue” [ 37 ] and “open the gates” [ 26 , 38 ] to further help when needed, for example by referring to a mental healthcare professional [ 39 ]. Still, while gatekeeper training is a frequently used and widely assessed intervention, various studies suggest gatekeeper training programs for preventing suicide need more thorough study to determine their ultimate effectiveness [ 15 , 16 , 39 , 40 ].…”

Facilitating Factors and Barriers to the Use of Emerging Technologies for Suicide Prevention in Europe: Multicountry Exploratory Study

“…Development of strategies to counteract suicide is one of the priorities of European and worldwide public health systems [ 34 ]. In recent years, this has led to the establishment of a growing number of intervention programs in many health care networks [ 35 - 37 ]. However, the stigma associated with mental health care and the difficulties in early detection of the risk for suicide have led to considering the possibility of using emerging technologies to facilitate the access of young people, an at-risk population, to these services while combating the stigma that obstacles help-seeking [ 38 , 39 ].…”