Psycho-social resilience, vulnerability and suicide prevention: impact evaluation of a mentoring approach to modify suicide risk for remote Indigenous Australian students at boarding school

Janya McCalman; Roxanne Bainbridge; Sandra Russo; Katrina Rutherford; Komla Tsey; Mark Wenitong; Anthony Shakeshaft; Chris Doran; Susan Jacups

doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2762-1

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Psycho-social resilience, vulnerability and suicide prevention: impact evaluation of a mentoring approach to modify suicide risk for remote Indigenous Australian students at boarding school

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Psycho-social resilience, vulnerability and suicide prevention: impact evaluation of a mentoring approach to modify suicide risk for remote Indigenous Australian students at boarding school

Janya McCalman, Roxanne Bainbridge, Sandra Russo, Katrina Rutherford, Komla Tsey, Mark Wenitong, Anthony Shakeshaft, Chris Doran and Susan Jacups

BMC Public Health, Vol.16, pp.1-12

2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-2762-1

PMCID: PMC4736696

PMID: 26833339

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Abstract

Resilience

Suicide prevention

Wellbeing

Aboriginal

Torres Strait Islander

Remote

School students

Boarding school

Mentoring

Background 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. Discussion 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.

Details

Title: Psycho-social resilience, vulnerability and suicide prevention: impact evaluation of a mentoring approach to modify suicide risk for remote Indigenous Australian students at boarding school
Authors: Janya McCalman (Corresponding Author) - James Cook University
Roxanne Bainbridge - Cairns Hospital
Sandra Russo - Queensland Department of Education
Katrina Rutherford - Queensland Department of Education
Komla Tsey - James Cook University
Mark Wenitong - Apunipima Cape York Health Council (Australia)
Anthony Shakeshaft - UNSW Sydney
Chris Doran - Central Queensland University
Susan Jacups - James Cook University
Publication details: BMC Public Health, Vol.16, pp.1-12
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd.
Date published: 2016
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-016-2762-1
ISSN: 1471-2458
PMID: 26833339; PMC4736696
Copyright note: © 2016 McCalman et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Grant note: This manuscript was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council as part of project grant.
Organisation Unit: School of Health - Psychology
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991241468302621
Output Type: Journal article

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