Evaluation Strategy for Finland's Suicide Prevention Project

Abstract

Finland's suicide prevention project (1987-1996) has proceeded to its final phase, evaluation. In this article the general structure of the evaluation and the strategy for evaluating the implementation phase (1992-1996) are presented. The evaluation aims to look at the success of the project in its target areas and the critical factors involved. It deals with the intervention strategies evolved, as well as indicators of progress in suicide prevention activities. A process evaluation approach is used to evaluate the national strategy and the project. The first follow-up (1993) and preliminary results from the ongoing evaluation (1996) show that the project is being largely successful in meeting the operative challenges formulated in the national strategy.

The role of physicians in advocating for a national strategy for suicide prevention

“…6 The rate of suicide in Finland decreased 9% from the 1985 level. 7 A recent study of progress of Australia's National Suicide Prevention Strategy, which began in 1999, showed a reduction in the suicide rate between 1999 and 2004 from 22 to 17 per 100 000 among men and from 5 to 4 per 100 000 among women.…”

Suicide Prevention Program in the Army of Serbia and Montenegro

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] However, we still considered it still unacceptably high and our aim was to decrease it even more. Therefore, in December 2003, we started to implement the Suicide Prevention Program in the Army.…”

Community-based suicide prevention program in Japan using a health promotion approach

“…In 1986, Finland became the first country to implement a comprehensive nationwide suicide prevention program; at the time Finland had one of the highest suicide rates in the world (15). The national suicide prevention program consisted of four stages: research (1986-1991), creation of an action program (1992), program implementation (1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996), and evaluation (1997)(1998).…”

“…countries in the 1980s (9). One famous example is the national suicide prevention program in Finland that was started in 1986 (10). Other countries, like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and France, have also developed similar national suicide prevention programs (9).…”

“…As a result, prevention programs targeting a single cause are not as effective. Therefore, national suicide prevention programs share some common features such as comprehensiveness and diversity (10). The typical policies of national suicide prevention programs categorized according to primary, secondary and tertiary prevention policies are summarized below.…”