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

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...

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Autores principales: King, Tania L., Gullestrup, Jorgen, Batterham, Philip J., Kelly, Brian, Lockwood, Chris, Lingard, Helen, Harvey, Samuel B., LaMontagne, Anthony D., Milner, Allison
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6211080/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30257471
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102106
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author King, Tania L.
Gullestrup, Jorgen
Batterham, Philip J.
Kelly, Brian
Lockwood, Chris
Lingard, Helen
Harvey, Samuel B.
LaMontagne, Anthony D.
Milner, Allison
author_facet King, Tania L.
Gullestrup, Jorgen
Batterham, Philip J.
Kelly, Brian
Lockwood, Chris
Lingard, Helen
Harvey, Samuel B.
LaMontagne, Anthony D.
Milner, Allison
author_sort King, Tania L.
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-62110802018-11-02 Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry King, Tania L. Gullestrup, Jorgen Batterham, Philip J. Kelly, Brian Lockwood, Chris Lingard, Helen Harvey, Samuel B. LaMontagne, Anthony D. Milner, Allison Int J Environ Res Public Health Article 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. MDPI 2018-09-25 2018-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6211080/ /pubmed/30257471 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102106 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
King, Tania L.
Gullestrup, Jorgen
Batterham, Philip J.
Kelly, Brian
Lockwood, Chris
Lingard, Helen
Harvey, Samuel B.
LaMontagne, Anthony D.
Milner, Allison
Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry
title Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry
title_full Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry
title_fullStr Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry
title_full_unstemmed Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry
title_short Shifting Beliefs about Suicide: Pre-Post Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Program for Workers in the Construction Industry
title_sort shifting beliefs about suicide: pre-post evaluation of the effectiveness of a program for workers in the construction industry
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6211080/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30257471
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15102106
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