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The Effectiveness of the More Than Sad School-based Gatekeeper Training Program
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

The Effectiveness of the More Than Sad School-based Gatekeeper Training Program

Guy Diamond, Lawrence Ogunkua, Tita Atte, Perri Rosen, Matt Wintersteen and Robert Gallop
School mental health, v 13(4), pp 655-666
01 Dec 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-021-09444-8
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/phbfp/65View
Submitted Open Open Access (License Unspecified)

Abstract

Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Educational Psychology Social Sciences
Schools have the unique opportunity to identify and refer youth at risk for suicide. School-based gatekeeper training programs aim to improve staff's ability to talk to students about mental health concerns and refer them for an assessment. Unfortunately, progress in evaluating the available programs has been limited. In fact, the popular and widely used More Than Sad program has received no rigorous evaluation to date. This study sets out to evaluate the effectiveness of the More Than Sad program in a quasi-experimental, wait-list control design with a large number of school personnel, across geographically diverse communities. Fourteen school districts with over 1475 school personal received the training. A standardized assessment tool was used before and after the training and two months later. Half of the schools served as a wait list control before receiving the treatment. Results. Compared to wait-listed staff, school personal who received the training reported a significant increase in knowledge, preparedness, self-efficacy, and likelihood to refer. Self-reported and actual referral behavior also increased both for those that had made referrals in the past and those that had not. Gains were maintained at 2-month follow-up. More Than Sad can effectively improve suicide literacy and willingness to refer youth at risk for suicide to school mental health resources. With 90% of the training pre-recorded on DVDs, future research should explore implementation feasibility and effectiveness.

Metrics

16 Record Views
9 citations in Web of Science
9 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

Source: SDGs in the Output

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychology, Developmental
Psychology, Educational
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