Home > Prevention of suicidal behaviour: results of a controlled community-based intervention study in four European countries.

Hegerl, Ulrich and Maxwell, Margaret and Harris, Fiona and Koburger, Nicole and Mergl, Roland and Székely, András and Arensman, Ella and Van Audenhove, Chantal and Larkin, Celine and Toth, Mónika Ditta and Quintão, Sónia and Värnik, Airi and Genz, Axel and Sarchiapone, Marco and McDaid, David and Schmidtke, Armin and Purebl, György and Coyne, James C and Gusmão, Ricardo (2019) Prevention of suicidal behaviour: results of a controlled community-based intervention study in four European countries. PLoS ONE, 14, (11), e0224602. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224602.

External website: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.13...

The 'European Alliance Against Depression' community-based intervention approach simultaneously targets depression and suicidal behaviour by a multifaceted community based intervention and has been implemented in more than 115 regions worldwide. The two main aims of the European Union funded project "Optimizing Suicide Prevention Programmes and Their Implementation in Europe" were to optimise this approach and to evaluate its implementation and impact. This paper reports on the primary outcome of the intervention (the number of completed and attempted suicides combined as 'suicidal acts') and on results concerning process evaluation analysis. Interventions were implemented in four European cities in Germany, Hungary, Portugal and Ireland, with matched control sites. The intervention comprised activities with predefined minimal intensity at four levels: training of primary care providers, a public awareness campaign, training of community facilitators, support for patients and their relatives. Changes in frequency of suicidal acts with respect to a one-year baseline in the four intervention regions were compared to those in the four control regions (chi-square tests). The decrease in suicidal acts compared to baseline in the intervention regions (-58 cases, -3.26%) did not differ significantly (χ2 = 0.13; p = 0.72) from the decrease in the control regions (-18 cases, -1.40%). However, intervention effects differed between countries (χ2 = 8.59; p = 0.04), with significant effects on suicidal acts in Portugal (χ2 = 4.82; p = 0.03). The interviews and observations explored local circumstances in each site throughout the study. Hypothesised mechanisms of action for successful implementation were observed and drivers for 'added-value' were identified: local partnership working and 'in-kind' contributions; an approach which valued existing partnership strengths; and synergies operating across intervention levels. It can be assumed that significant events during the implementation phase had a certain impact on the observed outcomes. However, this impact was, of course, not proven.


Item Type
Article
Publication Type
Irish-related, International, Open Access, Article
Drug Type
All substances
Intervention Type
Harm reduction
Source
Date
2019
Identification #
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224602
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Volume
14
Number
11
EndNote
Accession Number
HRB (Electronic Only)

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