Evaluation of the Health Provider Training in Adolescent Depression and Suicide Program

The “Understanding Adolescent Depression and Suicide Education Training Program” builds on best evidence approaches to addressing youth suicide and teaches health providers to understand, recognize, assess, treat and when to refer for subspecialty care, depressed and suicidal youth.

The Program is based on adult education principles and stresses the importance of critical evaluation of scientific information and learning how to think about the complex issues of adolescent depression and suicide. Not only does it provide best evidence and most up-to-date information on these topics, it gives participants the tools to be able to assess and understand new information as it become available, thus providing the basis for lifelong learning. It is designed to enhance the knowledge and competencies in all health providers so that they can better understand these issues and effectively address them in their day to day practice.

Findings from the research summarized in this report showed a significant increase in knowledge about depression and suicide with an average improvement of a statistically significant 20% at post test across all professionals groups.