Training Outcomes from the Samaritans of New York Suicide Awareness and Prevention Programme among Community- and School-Based Staff

The Samaritans of New York public education suicide awareness and prevention programme is designed to train lay and professional staff on effective suicide prevention practices and how to ‘befriend’ a person in crisis. However, little is known about the individual-level characteristics of staff who attend these trainings. Community- and school-based staff (N = 365) completed pre- and post-training measures of self-efficacy regarding their knowledge about suicide and suicide prevention and their ability to intervene with individuals at risk for suicide. Results indicate increased self-efficacy after suicide prevention training (M = 3.7, SD = 0.6) than before (M = 3.3, SD = 0.7) (t = –13.24, p < 0.05). Trainees with higher levels of education and previous contact with suicidal individuals were significantly more likely to indicate gains in self-efficacy after training.