IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v14y2017i3p304-d93052.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Knowledge, Self-Confidence and Attitudes towards Suicidal Patients at Emergency and Psychiatric Departments: A Randomised Controlled Trial of the Effects of an Educational Poster Campaign

Author

Listed:
  • Renate Van Landschoot

    (Unit for Suicide Research, Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium)

  • Gwendolyn Portzky

    (Unit for Suicide Research, Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium)

  • Kees Van Heeringen

    (Unit for Suicide Research, Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium)

Abstract

Educational posters are used to enhance knowledge, attitudes and self-confidence of patients. Little is known on their effectiveness for educating health care professionals. As these professionals may play an important role in suicide prevention, the effects of a poster and accompanying evaluation and triage guide on knowledge, self-confidence and attitudes regarding suicidal thoughts and behaviours, were studied in a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial, involving staff from 39 emergency and 38 psychiatric departments throughout Flanders ( n = 1171). Structured self-report questionnaires assessed the knowledge, confidence and beliefs regarding suicidal behaviour management, and attitudes. Data were analysed through a Solomon four-group design, with random assignment to the different conditions. Baseline scores for knowledge and provider confidence were high. The poster and accompanying evaluation and triage guide did not have an effect on knowledge about suicide and self-confidence in suicidal behaviour management. However, the poster campaign appeared to be beneficial for attitudes towards suicidal patients, but only among staff from mental health departments that were assigned to the un-pretested condition. Given the limited effects of the poster campaign in the studied population with a relatively high baseline knowledge, the evaluation of this poster as part of a multimodal educational programme in a more heterogeneous sample of health care professionals is recommended.

Suggested Citation

  • Renate Van Landschoot & Gwendolyn Portzky & Kees Van Heeringen, 2017. "Knowledge, Self-Confidence and Attitudes towards Suicidal Patients at Emergency and Psychiatric Departments: A Randomised Controlled Trial of the Effects of an Educational Poster Campaign," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-12, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:3:p:304-:d:93052
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/304/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/304/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manami Kodaka & Vita Poštuvan & Masatoshi Inagaki & Mitsuhiko Yamada, 2011. "A Systematic Review of Scales That Measure Attitudes Toward Suicide," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 57(4), pages 338-361, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erminia Colucci & David Lester, 2020. "A cross-cultural study of attitudes toward suicide among young people in India, Italy and Australia," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(7), pages 700-706, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:3:p:304-:d:93052. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.