Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

It is estimated that just within Canada, 3,890 individuals die by suicide each year. It has been continuously shown that a previous suicide attempt increases the likelihood of a completed suicide in the future. Drawing from this knowledge, a successful suicide prevention program may be one that targets the specific population of individuals who have had previous suicide attempts. Skills for Safer Living (SFSL) is an example of a program with that objective. The program was originally developed in Toronto, but has been adapted in the Waterloo Region by the Canadian Mental Health Association in partnership with the Self Help Alliance. This research has the goal of evaluating this program so that it can be improved to achieve it's maximum potential. There are two specific objectives in the current research: 1) An outcomes evaluation - this will evaluate what desired outcomes (such as a decrease in suicidality and an increase in quality of life) the program is reaching, and at what level they are reaching them, 2) An implementation evaluation - this will ensure that the components of the program which are essential to its effectiveness are being highly implemented within the program, and that the program is following the original program manual. This research will employ a participatory action research approach, which emphasizes collaboration between researcher(s), stakeholders, and consumers to more holistically understand the SFSL program and it's effects. The outcomes evaluation will involve the construction of a battery of outcome measures meant to look at constructs such as depression, anxiety, quality of life, social support, and suicidality. The battery will be constructed using previous research and knowledge that comes from focus groups and collaboration with SFSL staff and participants. Once constructed, it will be administered to participants pre- and post- participation in the SFSL group as a pilot study, then analyzed for reliability, validity, and for significant difference between the pre- and post- tests. The second part of the research (the implementation evaluation) will entail a similar method of constructing an evaluation tool, and will be administered to participants after completion of their SFSL group. The proposed research will be significant to the field of health sciences as it is contributing to the literature on suicide prevention, and on the evaluation of mental health services. Specifically, the research will provide a tool that can be used by the organization to improve their services. If the outcome evaluation shows exceedingly positive results it may provide incentive for other organizations to adapt this program and the implementation evaluation tool will provide them with guidelines on how to do so. More broadly, the research will add to the insufficient amount of literature on components of successful suicide prevention programs, and on general factors which may contribute to suicide and its prevention.