Attrition And Covid-19: Two Factors That Limited The Analysis Of The Calm Carpe Diem Gatekeeper Training For College Professionals

The risk of suicide on college campuses has become a major concern among students and other college professionals in the United States. In response to the rise in suicidal thoughts and behaviors, colleges and universities have invested in different types of suicide prevention programs. The implementation of suicide prevention trainings that emphasize the importance of reducing access to lethal means is a relatively less common feature of suicide prevention programs. Means safety programs such as the Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) approach have been adapted to include a gatekeeper version CALM CARPE Diem, which is particularly well-suited for the university environment. CARPE Diem provides training in traditional suicide prevention concepts, but its signature feature is an emphasis on means safety. The CALM CARPE Diem Gatekeeper Training was evaluated in a national convenience sample of college professionals who are part of The JED Foundation online campus community. The JED Foundation, a non-profit human service organization, works to help universities evaluate and strengthen their mental health, substance abuse, and suicide prevention programs.Consenting participants were given access to an online CARPE Diem webinar training. Levels of knowledge and confidence in using suicide prevention and means reduction interventions were assessed via Qualtrics among 42 participants at baseline, post-training, and during follow-up.Though the baseline findings were similar to what has been observed in previous CALM studies, attrition rates were high at post-training and after a four-week follow-up. Though no firm conclusions can be made about this version of CALM due to these limitations in the data, there were some important methodological and practical insights gleaned from this study. Among the insights include the development of an online version of CALM CARPE Diem, a future method of reaching a national sample of college professionals, and the benefits of directly experiencing the challenges researchers face during a global pandemic