McCalman Janya, Bainbridge Roxanne, Russo Sandra, Rutherford Katrina, Tsey Komla, Wenitong Mark, Shakeshaft Anthony, Doran Chris, Jacups Susan
The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, QLD, 4870, Australia.
School of Human Health and Social Sciences, CQUniversity Australia, Cairns Square, Level 3, Corner Abbott and Shields Streets, Cairns, QLD, 4870, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2016 Feb 1;16:98. doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-2762-1.
The proposed study was developed in response to increased suicide risk identified in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who are compelled to attend boarding schools across Queensland when there is no secondary schooling provision in their remote home communities. It will investigate the impact of a multicomponent mentoring intervention to increase levels of psychosocial resilience. We aim to test the null hypothesis that students' resilience is not positively influenced by the intervention. The 5-year project was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council from December 2014.
METHODS/DESIGN: An integrated mixed methods approach will be adopted; each component iteratively informing the other. Using an interrupted time series design, the primary research methods are quantitative: 1) assessment of change in students' resilience, educational outcomes and suicide risk; and 2) calculation of costs of the intervention. Secondary methods are qualitative: 3) a grounded theoretical model of the process of enhancing students' psychosocial resilience to protect against suicide. Additionally, there is a tertiary focus on capacity development: more experienced researchers in the team will provide research mentorship to less experienced researchers through regular meetings; while Indigenous team members provide cultural mentorship in research practices to non-Indigenous members.
Australia's suicide prevention policy is progressive but a strong service delivery model is lacking, particularly for Indigenous peoples. The proposed research will potentially improve students' levels of resilience to mitigate against suicide risk. Additionally, it could reduce the economic and social costs of Indigenous youth suicide by obtaining agreement on what is good suicide prevention practice for remote Indigenous students who transition to boarding schools for education, and identifying the benefits-costs of an evidence-based multi-component mentoring intervention to improve resilience.
本拟议研究是因应在昆士兰州被迫就读寄宿学校的原住民和托雷斯海峡岛民学生中发现的自杀风险增加而开展的。这些学生的偏远家乡社区没有中学教育设施。该研究将调查多成分辅导干预措施对提高心理社会适应能力水平的影响。我们旨在检验学生的适应能力不会受到该干预措施积极影响的零假设。这个为期5年的项目由澳大利亚国家卫生与医学研究委员会于2014年12月资助。
方法/设计：将采用综合混合方法；各组成部分相互迭代提供信息。采用中断时间序列设计，主要研究方法是定量的：1）评估学生适应能力、教育成果和自杀风险的变化；2）计算干预措施的成本。次要方法是定性的：3）构建一个关于增强学生心理社会适应能力以预防自杀过程的扎根理论模型。此外，还有一个关于能力发展的三级重点：团队中经验更丰富的研究人员将通过定期会议为经验较少的研究人员提供研究指导；而原住民团队成员将在研究实践中为非原住民成员提供文化指导。
澳大利亚的自杀预防政策是进步的，但缺乏强大的服务提供模式，特别是针对原住民群体。拟议的研究可能会提高学生的适应能力水平，以减轻自杀风险。此外，通过就针对转至寄宿学校接受教育的偏远原住民学生的良好自杀预防实践达成共识，并确定基于证据的多成分辅导干预措施提高适应能力的效益成本，该研究还可以降低原住民青年自杀的经济和社会成本。
