Using Technology to Engage School and Community Mental Health Personnel in

Addressing Students in DistressYolanda Jenkins, Carolyn Givens,

Yvette Jackson, Yingge Lin & Jane Timmons-Mitchell

September 18, 2014

Kognito At-Risk for High School Educators Gatekeeper Training: Ohio

• Part of Ohio’s Campaign for Hope Youth Suicide Prevention Initiative, a Garrett Lee Smith grant funded by SAMHSA

• Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation (OSPF) is the grantee

• License purchased for all schools in Ohio to use the At-Risk gatekeeper training

Demographics of Participants

• A total of 2378 matched participants were eligible to respond to post-test questions.

• A total of 468 matched participants were eligible to respond to follow-up questions.

• Demographics are presented for the 468 participants who completed pre, post and follow-up administration of questions.

Demographics of Participants (cont’d)

• Most (436) are white and female (328)• Most (315) are teachers; 23% work in

positions that can be characterized as mental health related ( counselors, social workers, psychologists)

• About half are 46 years of age and older• About half have been working in high school

education 23 years or more.

Results: Gatekeeper Behavior Scale

• The Gatekeeper Behavior Scale was developed to assess important dimensions related to identifying and referring students in distress.

• Three subscales: Preparedness, Likelihood and Self-Efficacy, are analyzed separately.

Results: Preparedness

• 443 participants completed pre-test, post-test and follow-up, for a 7% subject loss

• Differences overall from pre-test through follow-up are highly statistically significant

• (p< .0001)

Results: Likelihood

• 443 participants completed pre-test, post-test and follow-up, for a 7% subject loss

• Differences overall from pre-test through follow-up are highly statistically significant

• (p=.007)

Results: Self-Efficacy

• 443 participants completed pre-test, post-test and follow-up, for a 7% subject loss

• Differences overall from pre-test through follow-up are highly statistically significant

• (p< .0001)

Results of Pre-test to Post-test• Compared with pre-test, all questions displayed highly statistically significant differences (p< .0001)from pre-test to post- test

Results of Follow-up

• Compared with pre-test, all questions but one (“Part of the role of educators is to connect students experiencing psychological distress with mental health support services.”) displayed highly statistically significant differences from pre-test to follow-up.

Results of Post-test compared with Follow-up

• Compared with Post-test, most follow-up questions showed a decrement.

• No questions showed improvement from post-test to follow-up administration.

• This is what is expected in an A-B-A withdrawal design; the fact that follow-up scores remained higher than pre-test scores indicates the reliable knowledge acquisition

Questions at Follow-Up

• 484 participants responded to Likert-type questions indicating:

• Increase in the number of students recognized as exhibiting signs of psychological distress (39% agreed or strongly agreed).

• Increase in the number of students approached to discuss concern about psychological distress (34.3% agreed or strongly agreed).

• Increase in the number of referrals for mental health support services (28.9% agreed or strongly agreed).

Participant Awareness

• 58.9% stated that as a result of the course there has been an increase in the number of conversations they had with other adults in their school about students they are concerned about.