265564 Estimating the rate of identification of youth at risk for suicide by trained gatekeepers

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Michael Rodi, PhD , Public Health, ICF International, Atlanta, GA
Hailey Reid, MPH , Public Health, ICF International, New York, NY
Lucas Godoy Garraza, MA , Hesp, ICFI, New York, NY
Ye Xu, MPH , Public Health Division, ICF Macro, New York, NY
Christine Walrath, PhD , Public Health, ICF International, New York, NY
Richard McKeon, PhD, MPH , Suicide Prevention Branch, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, MD
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for youth aged 10-24 and resulted in 4,630 deaths among young people1 in 2009 alone. Since 2005, 76 State/Tribal grantees supported by the federally funded Garrett Lee Smith Memorial (GLS) program have submitted data on almost 6,000 youths identified at risk for suicide by gatekeepers. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the impact of gatekeeper training on the early identification of youth at risk for suicide through: (1) an analysis of key data related to tracking youth identified as at risk; and (2) a comparison of gatekeeper identification rates with rates of suicidality that can be estimated based on surveillance data. To obtain estimates of the minimum number of identification per adult trainee we will use an ordinal logistic regression with the type of training as the main covariate. To estimate the prevalence of suicide ideation among youth 15-18 and 18-25 for a particular community, a model will be built using data from the YRBSS (2009) and BRFSS (2010), respectively along with its specific demographics from the American Community Survey. Findings suggest possible implications for prioritizing gatekeeper trainings approaches based on trainee characteristics, predictors of service receipt, and circumstances that seem to promote shorter time to service receipt. They push the suicide prevention research and evaluation field to a more detailed, robust and generalizable understanding of how some of the most common strategies to reduce school-aged youth suicide can be improved to more effectively impact intended beneficiaries.

Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Epidemiology
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs

Learning Objectives:
Describe two models of estimating the prevalence of identifying youth at risk for suicide. Explain how to more effectively plan and implement training strategies to identify, refer, and track youth at increased risk for suicide into services.

Keywords: Suicide, Youth

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the project director for the evaluation of the program from which this data is drawn and have several years of experience managing very large, complex multi-component, multi-year efforts. I frequently travel throughout the United States including territories and tribal reservations to provide technical assistance and consultation to monitor, evaluate, and improve public health programs. My primary interest is in education and public health arenas with a particular focus on youth and children at-risk.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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