Citation

Scheerder G, Reynders A, Andriessen K, Van Audenhove C. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 2010; 40(2): 115-124.

Affiliation

LUCAS, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. gert.scheerder@med.kuleuven.be

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, American Association of Suicidology, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1521/suli.2010.40.2.115

PMID

20465346

Abstract

Health and community professionals have considerable exposure to suicidal people and need to be well skilled to deal with them. We assessed suicide intervention skills with a Dutch version of the SIRI in 980 health and community professionals and psychology students. Suicide intervention skills clearly differed among professional groups and were strongly related to experience, especially suicide-specific experience. Some community professionals scored below acceptable levels on their ability to respond appropriately to suicidal people they encounter, and tended to overestimate their skills level. Training is therefore indicated for these groups, and may be useful to more highly experienced groups too.

Language: en