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Understanding the utility of "Talk-to-Me" an online suicide prevention program for Australian university students
Afsharnejad, Bahareh Milbourn, Ben Brown, Cherylee Clifford, Rhonda Foley, Kitty-Rose Logan, Alexandra Lund, Stephan Machingura, Tawanda Mcauliffe, Tomomi Mozolic-Staunton, Beth
Afsharnejad, Bahareh
Milbourn, Ben
Brown, Cherylee
Clifford, Rhonda
Foley, Kitty-Rose
Logan, Alexandra
Lund, Stephan
Machingura, Tawanda
Mcauliffe, Tomomi
Mozolic-Staunton, Beth
Author
Afsharnejad, Bahareh
Milbourn, Ben
Brown, Cherylee
Clifford, Rhonda
Foley, Kitty-Rose
Logan, Alexandra
Lund, Stephan
Machingura, Tawanda
Mcauliffe, Tomomi
Mozolic-Staunton, Beth
Sharp, Nicole
Hayden-Evans, Maya
Baker Young, Ellie
Black, Melissa
Zimmermann, Frank
Kacic, Viktor
Bolte, Sven
Girdler, Sonya
Milbourn, Ben
Brown, Cherylee
Clifford, Rhonda
Foley, Kitty-Rose
Logan, Alexandra
Lund, Stephan
Machingura, Tawanda
Mcauliffe, Tomomi
Mozolic-Staunton, Beth
Sharp, Nicole
Hayden-Evans, Maya
Baker Young, Ellie
Black, Melissa
Zimmermann, Frank
Kacic, Viktor
Bolte, Sven
Girdler, Sonya
Abstract
Background
Australian university students are at risk of experiencing poor mental health, being vulnerable to self-harm and suicidal ideation.
Aim
“Talk-to-Me” is a suicide ideation prevention Massive open online course (MOOC) previously showing it can support Western Australian university students' knowledge of identifying and responding to suicide ideation in themselves and others.
Methods
A multi-site one-group pre-test/post-test design with a 12-week follow-up explored the efficacy of “Talk-to-Me” for university students Australia-wide, evaluating the influence of COVID-19 and location. Overall, 217 students (55% female; mage = 24.93 years [18, 60]) enrolled in this study from 2020 to 2021. Participants' responses to suicidal statements, mental health literacy, generalized self-efficacy, help-seeking behavior, and overall utility of the program were collected at baseline, post-MOOC (10 weeks from baseline) and 12-week follow-up. The effect of time and location interaction was explored using a random-effects regression model.
Results
Findings indicated significant improvement in participants' knowledge of positive mental health support strategies (ES = 0.42, p < 0.001) and recognizing appropriate responses to suicidal statements (ES = 0.37, p < 0.001) at 10-weeks, with further improvement at 12 weeks follow-up (ES = 0.47 and 0.46, p < 0.001). Students reported higher generalized self-efficacy at the 12-week follow-up compared to baseline (ES = 0.19, p = 0.03) and an increased tendency to seek professional help for mental health issues (ES = 0.22, p = 0.02).
Conclusion
These findings provide preliminary evidence of the efficacy of the “Talk-to-Me” program in supporting university students across Australia to increase their suicide-related knowledge and skills, general self-efficacy, and overall mental fitness.
Keywords
Mass Open Online Course (MOOC), mental health education, suicide prevention program, university students
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
Book
Volume
53
Issue
5
Page Range
725-738
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Allied Health
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2023 The Authors. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Association of Suicidology.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.