Increasing suicide awareness through inservice training

Although practitioners recognize the alarming increase in suicidal behavior among students, few have formal training in identifying symptoms often associated with suicidal ideation and behavior. Twenty-seven educators in a metropolitan school district in the Northeast attended an informative inservice training on suicide and, using a pretest-posttest design, completed a questionnaire specifically designed to measure knowledge of suicidal ideation and gestures, personal comfort level with students exhibiting suicidal behavior, and level of personal depressive symptoms. Results suggested that participants increased their knowledge of suicidal ideation and gestures following the inservice training. These changes may affect the ability of school personnel to function appropriately and feel comfortable in crisis situations with students displaying suicidal ideation and gestures