Reducing Suicide-Related Stigma through Peer-to-Peer School-Based Suicide Prevention Programming

• Published in: Children & schools Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 216 - 223
• Main Authors: Wright-Berryman, Jennifer L, Thompson, Devyn, Cramer, Robert J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 01.10.2022
• Subjects: Clinical trials; Help seeking behavior; Mental health; Mental Health Programs; Peer Relationship; Peers; Prevention; Prevention programs; Preventive medicine; Programming; Protective factors; Randomized Controlled Trials; Schools; Social Bias; Stigma; Students; Suicide; Suicide prevention; Suicides & suicide attempts; Youth; suicide prevention; peer-to-peer program; school-based social work; school mental health
• ISSN: 1532-8759; 1545-682X
• DOI: 10.1093/cs/cdac015

Abstract Youth suicide rates have consistently risen over the past decade, and stigma related to mental health may create a barrier to young people seeking help. Schools are a common intercept point for mental health and suicide prevention programming. Hope Squad, a school-based, peer-to-peer, suicide prevention program, uses trained and mentored students nominated by their peers to perform intentional outreach with fellow students. When a Hope Squad member detects a mental health or suicide crisis in a peer, they alert a trusted adult. We employed a cohort, wait-list–control, cross-sectional survey design. We recruited more than 3,400 students from nine schools—five with Hope Squads and four without—to observe differences in student-body suicide-related stigma. At the end of the academic year, there was significantly lower stigma in Hope Squad schools versus those without the program. Findings suggest that a peer-to-peer, school-based, suicide prevention program may reduce stigmatizing attitudes related to suicide. Next steps include a randomized controlled trial to identify changes in help-seeking and similar protective factors.