Promoting Hope, Preventing Suicide

Research and advice on preventing teen and adult suicide.

by Elana Premack Sandler, L.C.S.W., M.P.H.

Elana Premack Sandler, LCSW, MPH, is a public health social worker specializing in violence and injury prevention and adolescent health promotion. See full bio

September 16, 2009, Depression

Awareness of What?

What’s the true goal of awareness weeks?

Following up on last week's postings for Suicide Prevention Week, I wanted to take a little time to think critically about the purpose of activities for awareness weeks.

Awareness of what? is the main question I want to ask. We have pretty solid evidence indicating that education alone does not lead to behavior change, despite our attraction to educational activities as a means of prevention. I should know - I adore facilitating educational workshops, designing brochures, and tabling at events! But, much to the disappointment of my ego, these kinds of activities do not, by themselves, contribute to changing an environment in such a way that supports suicide prevention.

What supports suicide prevention is a comprehensive approach, of which educational or awareness activities are a part. A comprehensive approach has at its heart a set of goals and a group of activities that support those goals. Activities can certainly include some of those I've named above. But, it's important that these activities are directly connected to the goals of the approach. If a goal of a suicide prevention program is to increase the number of youth seeking help at local mental health centers, then that goal should be kept top of mind for the activities that are a part of that program.

I want to suggest that the goal of all awareness activities should not be to prevent suicide. Sometimes the goal is to raise awareness about mental health resources in a community. Sometimes, it's about raising awareness about signs and symptoms of depression. Or, the goal might be to raise awareness about risk factors for suicide. All of these elements help contribute to an environment in which suicide may be prevented. But, using a measurement such as a decrease in actual suicide deaths may not demonstrate success for these activities. Can we really, truly link an activity like a movie showing to decreased rates of suicide?

So, how do we measure success? Do we ask people before and after an awareness activity if they knew about specific resources, signs or symptoms, or risk factors that were presented as part of the activity? How might we do that? Through a survey? Person-on-the-street interviews? Focus groups? What are the implications for each of these methods?

For events, we often measure our success by the number of people who attended. But, what do those numbers indicate? Do they indicate the kind of success we really want to be achieving? If the achievement of your goal will be having more youth seek help at mental health centers, then you must find a way to measure that outcome.

Awareness weeks are dynamic, important opportunities for raising the profile of issues we care about, like suicide prevention. Let's use them in the best way we can, by being clear about our goals and purposeful in measuring our outcomes.