Abstract
In this study, researchers detail an evaluation of a pilot community-based farmer suicide prevention program that used QPR-based training customized for the agricultural community. Community-based mental health programs have been cited as key to addressing the worldwide suicide rate, but evidence of their execution and utility is not well documented, particularly within the agricultural community context. Researchers used Kirkpatrick's (1998) training evaluation model and a pre-post one-group design (Eseryel, 2002) of consenting training participants to conduct a preliminary assessment of programmatic impact. Using a revised Willingness to Intervene Against Suicide Questionnaire (Aldrich et al., 2014), which treated the questionnaire as an interval level scale suitable for parametric analysis, researchers found statistically significant differences in pretraining willingness to intervene between male and female respondents as well as those who work in agriculture and those who do not. An analysis of those respondents who completed both pre- and post-training surveys indicated statistically significant growth of 0.21 logits in the willingness to intervene variable, as well as remarkable growth for male participants in comparison to female participants.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages | 33-45 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Volume | 29 |
| No | 1 |
| Specialist publication | Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 ASABE.
Funding
The researchers thank the seventeen gatekeepers for their time and commitment to the mental health of their communities, as well as the 415 individuals who participated in the training seminars. They also thank those additional members of the farmer and farm family suicide prevention program development team: Dr. Cheryl Witt (University of Louisville), Dr. Susan Jones and Dr. Kim Link (Western Kentucky University), Catherine Malin (South Central Area Health Education Center), and Dr. Kristie Guffey (Murray State University). They also express gratitude to Warren Beeler and Alex Sabad for their contributions to the development and editing of content for the program. They thank Rosalie Aldrich for giving us permission to use the Willingness to Intervene Against Suicide Questionnaire. They also acknowledge Nan Li for her assistance in the Rasch analysis of the Willingness to Intervene Against Suicide Questionnaire data. Funding for the program was provided by the Central Appalachian Regional Educational Research Center (CARERC) through NIOSH Grant 6T42OH010278, Kentucky legislative appropriations, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Southern Farmer Rancher Stress Assistance Network (S-FRSAN) Sub-award Pilot Study: Farmer Suicide Prevention Community-based Network.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Central Appalachian Regional Educational Research Center | |
| Kentucky legislative appropriations | |
| National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health | 6T42OH010278 |
| U.S. Department of Agriculture |
Keywords
- Evaluation of suicide prevention program
- Farmer suicide prevention
- Rasch analysis
- Willingness to intervene
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
