Glossary
Definitions of suicide prevention work and research terms
E | I | N | P | S |
E
Early intervention
Targets individuals or groups who are developing problems, which could place them at high risk of developing self-harm, and suicide related behaviours (eg, people with early and emerging mental health problems). Early intervention includes strategies to facilitate early identification of people at risk to assist them gain access to appropriate help, as well as intervention to prevent further development of the emerging problems. Early intervention occurs BEFORE suicide related behaviours emerge.
Evaluation
Uses research methods to assess and improve services, organisations and programmes.
Evaluation aims: A series of concise statements that outline the purpose of your evaluation and what you aim to achieve.
Evaluator: The person making the evaluation
External evaluators: Researchers or consultancy units not directly managed by and independent of the sponsor and user of the evaluation.
Impact evaluation: Evaluating the immediate or short-term effects of a programme. It involves establishing to what extent progress has been made towards meeting programme objectives.
Internal evaluators: Evaluation or development units or researchers that are internal to the organization, and that evaluate treatments services or policies carried out by the organization or one of its divisions.
Outcome evaluation: Involves looking at the overall effects of your programme, especially in relation to whether your programme goal has been achieved.
Process evaluation: Evaluation which documents what happens in a programme. Information from programme evaluation helps to understand why a programme produces the results it does and can be used in the on-going improvement of a programme.
Qualitative evaluation research method: Research methods which look in detail at the nature of responses rather than the number of responses to a given issue. The aim is to increase in-depth understanding of others experiences and viewpoints.
Quantitative evaluation research method: Research methods which record the frequency of number of responses to a given question or issue. This provides the number of people who said or did something.
Self-evaluation: Practitioners or teams who evaluate their own practice so as to improve it.
I
Instrumental suicide related behaviour
Potentially self injurious behaviour for which there is evidence, either explicit or implicit, that the person did not intend to kill himself and that the person wishes to use the appearance of intending to kill himself or herself in order to attain some other end (for example to seek help, to punish others or to receive attention.)
Intervention
Involves providing support or treatment to those people experiencing acute crises or chronic problems that place them at immediate or sustained high risk of suicide and suicide related behaviours. Examples of relevant activities include: crises intervention to help resolve personal crises (eg counselling); treatment and follow-up after self-inflicted injury and suicide attempts; treatment of established mental health problems; provision of ongoing support to young people with other long term problems such as repeatedly involved in the justice system.
N
Needs assessment
The process of identifying the needs of a particular group for the purpose of planning an effective programme. A needs assessment includes seeking input from all relevant groups such as professionals and members of the community as well as gathering information from relevant documents.
P
Primary prevention
Is concerned with preventing the development of problems that place people at risk of suicide (eg preventing mental disorders or homelessness). Primary prevention can be universally or selectively targeted. Universal strategies target whole populations and include mental health promotion activities that aim to enhance resilience, optimism and the quality of social relationships and environments. Selectively targeted strategies target subgroups in the population that have a higher than average chance of developing risk factors for suicide. Measures that restrict access to means of suicide may be included as primary prevention since they are basically concerned with the quality of environments and are universally targeted.
Programme
A planned intervention usually consisting of goals, objectives, strategies and performance indicators.
Programme effect: Changes in peoples, knowledge, skills, attitudes or environments that can be linked to your programme.
S
Suicide
Death from injury or suffocation where there is evidence, either explicit or implicit, that the injury was self-inflicted and that the person intended to kill himself or herself. (The term completed suicide or death by suicide can be used interchangeably with the term suicide.)
Suicide attempt
A potentially self injurious behaviour with a non-fatal outcome for which there is evidence, either explicit or implicit, that the person intended at some level to kill herself or himself. A suicide attempt may or may not result in injuries.
Suicidal ideation
Any self reported thoughts or engaging in suicide related behaviour.
Suicide related behaviour
Potentially self injurious behaviour for which there is explicit or implicit evidence either that a person intended, at some level, to kill himself or herself, or, that a person wished to use the appearance of intending to kill himself or herself in order to attain some other end.
