Evidence Based Practices

I am gearing up to offer regularly scheduled ASIST Trainings this coming school year, and to do so, I want to be able to direct potential participants and gatekeepers to the research on the ASIST program.  This is an evidence based world we live in, and my colleagues deserve no less than awareness that outcomes based research has been done on Suicide Prevention.  

One such article is: "The use and impact of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) in Scotland: a literature review and evaluation," by Dawn Griesbach, Patricia Russell, Rona Dolev and Clare Lardner Griesbach & Associates, published in Research Findings, No.63/2008. Two of the findings include: 

Participants reported substantially higher levels of knowledge, confidence and skills in relation to intervening with someone at risk of suicide after ASIST training. These increases were largely maintained over time.

The proportion of participants who reported intervening with someone at risk of suicide increased by 20% after ASIST training.  Most people who intervened felt they had done so to good effect. People who reported experiences of intervening with someone at risk of suicide after ASIST training were most likely to be those who had experience of intervening prior to the training.

20% does not seem like a significant increase.  What should be done to increase the number of interventions and track them over time?  How do we know when we have been successful with this training program and what data will support that claim?

If this is the case, then I need to find the questions the Scots used to conduct this research and put up a survey for the 40 people that I and my colleagues have trained so far. 

This I will so shortly and report back here.  In the meantime, please post your questions here to dir