Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University, West Harrison, NY, USA.
Department of Social Work, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey.
Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2021 Sep;67(6):705-712. doi: 10.1177/0020764020970237. Epub 2020 Nov 4.
Domestic violence, childhood physical and sexual abuse, and gang violence are prevalent and growing problems for Guatemalan youth, particularly in low socioeconomic (SES) areas. Resources in the community for psychosocial support are greatly lacking. Schools often serve as the main source of support for these highly vulnerable adolescents. Yet, many teachers lack the training to manage the psychological distress of their at-risk students and to properly engage, assess, and manage the psychological needs of their students. We developed a brief risk assessment and management training for teachers to address this gap.
We present the acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of the training at increasing teacher's knowledge and understanding of how to engage and work with their at-risk students around their thoughts and feelings of suicide.
Twenty-two teachers from a school in a low SES community in Guatemala participated in the training program. Mixed methods were used to explore effectiveness, acceptability, and satisfaction with the training. Primary outcomes assessed were changes in self-reported knowledge and understanding of engaging and working with students at risk of suicide.
Participants reported increased knowledge and understanding of all training targets ( < .05). Acceptability was high as no participants dropped out and all participants rated the training as useful for their professional development, meeting their expectations, and as highly satisfying.
Brief, focused training on suicidality can be effective and is acceptable to lay professionals. Further examination of the effectiveness of the training in a larger sample is required to assess the long-term impact of the training and its transportability to other communities.
家庭暴力、儿童期身体和性虐待以及帮派暴力是危地马拉青年普遍存在且日益严重的问题，尤其是在社会经济地位（SES）较低的地区。社区中用于提供心理社会支持的资源非常匮乏。学校通常是这些高度脆弱青少年的主要支持来源。然而，许多教师缺乏管理高危学生心理困扰的培训，也无法正确地与学生互动、评估和满足他们的心理需求。我们针对这一差距为教师制定了一项简短的风险评估和管理培训。
我们展示了该培训在提高教师对如何与有自杀风险的学生就其自杀想法和感受进行互动和合作的知识和理解方面的可接受性和初步有效性。
来自危地马拉一个低收入社区学校的 22 名教师参加了培训计划。采用混合方法探索培训的有效性、可接受性和满意度。主要评估结果是自我报告的关于与有自杀风险的学生互动和合作的知识和理解的变化。
参与者报告说，他们对所有培训目标的了解都有所增加（ < 0.05）。可接受性很高，因为没有参与者退出，并且所有参与者都认为培训对他们的职业发展有用，符合他们的期望，并且非常令人满意。
针对自杀问题的简短、重点培训是有效的，并且受到非专业人员的欢迎。需要进一步在更大的样本中检验培训的有效性，以评估培训的长期影响及其在其他社区的可推广性。
