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Peer Recognition

Peer recognition and response training describes activities designed to improve young peoples’ ability to recognize suicide risk in a peer and initiate getting help. These efforts are typically implemented in school contexts. Traditionally, programs of this sort have been known as suicide awareness programs or curriculum-based suicide prevention programs and the evidence for their effectiveness has been mixed. Part of the problem may be that these programs have been implemented in isolation and the intentions have not always been clear, leading to poor program designs, unrealistic expectations and inappropriate evaluation targets. Re-casting this set of activities as peer recognition and response training and embedding it within a larger set of overlapping activities reflects the intentions of these activities more explicitly: the target audience is peer responders and the goal is to increase recognition and responsible action among youth who encounter a potentially distressed or suicidal peer (i.e. tell an adult). As well, these program activities must be supported by other complementary prevention and intervention efforts including: youth skill-building, school in-service training, and parent education, as well as school administrative policies, and crisis intervention and treatment services.

Proponents of peer recognition and response training (or curriculum-based) approaches for youth typically justify these programs on the following, empirical grounds:34

  • Most suicidal youths confide their concerns more often to peers than adults
  • Distressed youth (e.g. depressed, substance abusers) prefer peer supports over adults
  • Some adolescents, particularly some males, do not respond to troubled peers in empathic or helpful ways
  • As few as 25% of peer confidants tell an adult about their troubled or suicidal peer
  • School personnel are consistently among the last choices of adolescents for discussing personal concerns

Recent evaluations of school-based suicide prevention programs assessed students' knowledge and attitudes following a school-based suicide prevention curriculum. Results suggest that the programs were effective in increasing knowledge and influencing attitudes in the desired direction and no undesirable effects of the programs (e.g. increased levels of hopelessness) were detected. 35 36

Implementation Ideas and Tools

Research-informed, curriculum-based approaches to youth suicide prevention are detailed in the School-based Suicide Prevention Programs Guide, developed by the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida.

The UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools has prepared a comprehensive set of tools and tips to guide those implementing a school-based suicide prevention awareness program.

The Signs of Suicide (SOS) Program is one example of a promising school-based suicide prevention program that combines suicide awareness curricula with a brief screening tool for depression and suicide risk. The program is typically implemented during one or two classroom periods. The curriculum teaches high school students to respond to the signs of suicide as a mental health emergency, using the “ACT” approach that stands for Acknowledge, Care, and Tell.

In British Columbia, a school-based suicide awareness program called “Reaching Out” has recently been developed by the Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of BC.

For a list of resources relevant to peer recognition and response training, click here.