Strengthening suicide prevention networks: Interorganizational collaboration and tie strength

Abstract

a b s t r a c tOne explanation for the continued high rates of suicide in the United States may be insufficient coordination between organizations involved in prevention. Therefore, the factors that promote interorganizational collaboration should be identified and fostered. Surveys were administered to 37 organizations involved in suicide prevention in one Colorado community to: (1) assess the nature of collaboration and (2) identify relationship strength indicators associated with different types of collaboration. Results were examined using social network and regression analyses. Organizations reported more sharing information and resources and sending and receiving referrals than developing service infrastructure and coordinating training and screening activities. Some types of organizations were more connected than others, and the influence of relationship strength indicators was mostly consistent across different types of collaboration. This study offers new insight into the structural and relational aspects of interorganizational collaboration in suicide prevention and may serve as a model to better understand networks within other community health settings. © 2015 Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Fortalecimiento de las redes de prevención del suicidio: colaboración interorganizativa y fuerza del lazoPalabras clave: Prevención del suicidio Colaboración interorganizativa Análisis de redes sociales Fortaleza del lazo Red de prevención comunitaria r e s u m e n Una explicación de la continuidad de las altas tasas de suicido en los Estados Unidos puede ser la insuficiente coordinación entre las organizaciones que participan en su prevención. En consecuencia debemos identificar y fomentar aquellos factores que promueven la colaboración entre organizaciones. Se encuestaron 37 organizaciones implicadas en la prevención del suicido en una comunidad de Colorado para (1) evaluar la naturaleza de la colaboración y (2) identificar indicadores de la fortaleza de las relaciones asociados con los diferentes tipos de colaboración. Los resultados se examinaron con análisis de redes sociales y análisis de regresión. En la relación entre las organizaciones fue más frecuente el intercambio de información y recursos, así como la derivación de usuarios, que el desarrollo de la infraestructura de los servicios, la coordinación de la formación o las actividades de detección. Unos tipos de organización estaban más conectadas que otras, y la influencia de los indicadores de intensidad de la relación eran en su mayor parte consistentes en los diferentes tipos de colaboración. Este estudio ofrece una nueva visión de los aspectos estructurales y relacionales de la colaboración interinstitucional en la prevención del suicidio y puede servir de modelo para entender mejor las redes en otros entornos comunitarios de salud.

Network analysis for social and community interventions

“…In consequence, it is particularly relevant in studies of community psychology and in psychosocial interventions. As we show in this monograph, networks allow to detect patterns of collaboration that are not perceived intuitively (Todd et al, 2015), serve to examine the mutual influence of individual community organizations and networks of interorganizational collaboration (Faust et al, 2015;Menger et al, 2015;Rana & Allen, 2015), facilitate the dissemination of evidencebased practices among professionals of the intervention , and are a tool for intervention by themselves (Corlew et al, 2015).…”

“…Two important issues in this regard are the core-periphery structure, and interaction of individual organizations with the whole network. On the one hand, the existence of a small core of organizations densely connected to each other seems to be fundamental to the proper functioning of coalitions (Faust et al, 2015;Menger et al, 2015;Rana & Allen, 2015). On the other hand, links with a network of entities allow individual community organizations to improve their effectiveness (Faust et al, 2015), although that makes the organization is also more exposed to the influence of political and social norms of the network (Rana & Allen, 2015).…”

Suicide and Self-Harm: It’s Everyone’s Business

“…Community suicide prevention networks rely on organizations working together to implement a suicide prevention plan. Organizations tend to be more connected around information and resource sharing and less collaborative around infrastructure and training, so this may need good negotiation and diplomacy skills by the practitioner (Menger et al 2015). It has also been suggested that the best way an organization can improve its collaboration with other organizations is through regular communication and developing trusting relationships (Menger et al 2015).…”

“…Organizations tend to be more connected around information and resource sharing and less collaborative around infrastructure and training, so this may need good negotiation and diplomacy skills by the practitioner (Menger et al 2015). It has also been suggested that the best way an organization can improve its collaboration with other organizations is through regular communication and developing trusting relationships (Menger et al 2015). This could indicate the need for developing collaborative networks that meet on a regular basis to provide an ongoing identification of the communities needs and evaluate the strategies being implemented.…”

Inter-organisational collaboration in palliative care trajectories for nursing home residents: A nation-wide mixed methods study among key persons

“…The standardisation of shareddecision making has a positive influence on respecting patient wishes 51 . Although support for communication and leadership is often mentioned as an important factor to improve inter-organisational collaboration in other healthcare domains, the need for structural aspects of collaboration is not explicitly addressed [52][53][54][55] . As such, our findings may reflect the particular nature of inter-organisational collaboration in palliative care.…”