Evidence-Based Educational Intervention To Improve Evaluation and Preventive Services for Officers at Risk for Suicidal Behaviors (From Suicide and Law Enforcement, P 17-30, 2001, Donald C. Sheehan and Janet I. Warren, eds. -- See NCJ-193528)

• NCJ Number: 193530
• Author(s): Lawrence V. Amsel; Giovanni P. A. Placidi; Herbert Hendin; Michael O'Neill; J. John Mann
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: US Dept of Justice
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper submitted to the Suicide and Law Enforcement Conference, FBI Academy, Quantico, VA, September 1999.

Annotation

This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a New York City educational program intended to prevent suicide among police officers by improving the knowledge and skills of police psychologists, counselors, and other employee assistance personnel.

Abstract

A secondary goal of the program is to help the counselors identify and refer police officers whose suicidal ideation or suicide attempts indicate severe distress and probable vocational dysfunction. The development of the program followed the protocol of an occupation-health assessment as outlined by Fein (1998), with modifications for dealing with mental health as described by Kahn (1993). Risk factors for suicide are included in program presentations, with attention to the 15 clinically useful risk factors compiled at a 1998 national conference on suicide prevention convened by the Surgeon General. The overall model used for suicide risk factors is the Stress Diathesis model (Mann et al., 1999), which postulates two independent components in suicidal behavior that work together. The first is a life-long personality style, which predisposes to aggressive/impulsive behavior in response to stressful circumstances or powerful emotions. The second component of the model is a stressor that supplies an intense desire to end one's life. After a review of general risk factors for suicide, the training then focuses on risk factors specific to police work, such as work stressors and aggressive/impulsive personality style. Three evaluation methods were planned to assess whether the course meets its specific objectives. This paper details these methods, which involved a weekly participant questionnaire; follow-up participant focus groups 8 months after completion of the training; and a quantitative assessment of the number and types of referrals made from the New York Police Department's counseling services, the number of suicide attempts, and the number of complete suicides over the coming years. In the first stage of the evaluation, the course received a strong endorsement from the participants, as indicated by the scores on the questionnaires and by the written comments.