Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry

Abstract

Suicide is a significant health problem that is known to disproportionately affect those employed in manual occupations, including construction workers and tradespeople. Universal General Awareness Training (GAT) was part of a multi-component suicide prevention program in the Australian construction industry. The program’s aims were to increase awareness of mental health and suicide, reduce stigma, and encourage help-seeking and help-offering behaviours. This paper sought to examine the effectiveness of the GAT program in shifting suicide beliefs. Pre- and post-training survey data of 20,125 respondents was obtained from a database of GAT evaluation results between 2016 and 2018. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were fitted to examine belief changes, and predictive margins and their SEs were computed. Mean differences in belief change were obtained for the overall sample, and by occupation. Modest but significant favourable shifts in three of the four beliefs assessed were observed following GAT. Managers and professionals showed greater propensity to shift beliefs, and Labourers and Machinery Operators and Drivers showed least. Results suggest that GAT can successfully shift some beliefs regarding suicide and mental health at least in the short term, but highlight the need to tailor communication to vulnerable occupational groups.

A Longitudinal Assessment of Two Suicide Prevention Training Programs for the Construction Industry

“…Overall, these findings showing significant improvements from pre-to post-training, are consistent with previous evaluation research which found support for the effectiveness of MATES training [7,14]. Nevertheless, those studies were limited to GAT training and did not include follow-up.…”

“…Workers are taught how to identify the warning signs for suicidality and are encouraged to offer active support to struggling co-workers. Previous pre-post training evaluation research has shown GAT to be an effective program in fostering suicide prevention awareness [6] and shifting attitudes towards suicide and mental health [7]. In addition, the overall MATES program has been found to increase help-seeking behaviours and reduce stigma around mental health issues in the mining industry [8].…”

Are Young Men Getting the Message? Age Differences in Suicide Prevention Literacy among Male Construction Workers

“…At both pre- and post-tests, participants indicated agreement (on a 5-point Likert scale, from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5)) on four statements that assessed their beliefs and awareness regarding suicide prevention, and the role of the workplace in preventing suicide. Details on the outcome items have been documented elsewhere [23], and were based on field trials of items drawn from “ten myths about suicide” documented by the World Health Organisation [24]. We considered combining the four items into a single unidimensional measure; however, the internal consistency, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha, was insufficient (α = 0.32).…”

“…There are also conceptual motivations for examining these separately: two of the items reflect “suicide prevention literacy”, and the other two items reflect “attitudes to the workplace in preventing suicide”. Given these motivations, together with evidence that there are substantial differences in response to these measures [23], we chose to examine them separately.…”

“…Models were adjusted for state, year of training and clustering by the training session (Model a). Previous work has shown that the majority of respondents have known someone who has attempted/died by suicide [23]. Given that those in the youngest age group (15–24 years) were slightly less likely to report this (70.4%, compared to 74–77% among the older groups), we also examined whether controlling for previous experience of suicide (knowing someone who had died by, or attempted suicide) affected beliefs (Model b).…”