Suicide Intervention Skills and Related Factors in Community and Health Professionals

G Scheerder, A Reynders, K Andriessen, C Van Audenhove

Research output: Contribution to journalA1: Web of Science-articlepeer-review

Abstract

Health and community professionals have considerable exposure to suicidal people and need to be well skilled to deal with them. We assessed suicide intervention skills with a Dutch version of the SIRI in 980 health and community professionals and psychology students. Suicide intervention skills clearly differed among professional groups and were strongly related to experience, especially suicide-specific experience. Some community professionals scored below acceptable levels on their ability to respond appropriately to suicidal people they encounter, and tended to overestimate their skills level. Training is therefore indicated for these groups, and may be useful to more highly experienced groups too.
Original languageEnglish
JournalSuicide and Life-threatening Behavior
Volume40
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)115-124
Number of pages10
ISSN0363-0234
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr-2010
Externally publishedYes

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