Given the low base rate of completed suicides, and the difficulty of measuring events that did not occur, which methods can we use to quantitatively evaluate the impact of suicide prevention programs?
1- Increased number of psychological consults for suicidal thought, behavior or design while the number of suicidal attempts are decreased or constant.
2- increased popular report of suicidal behavior & design while the number of emergency interventions are increased.
3-
Since the number of suicide attempts among the population will be low (although still a serious problem), one could assess the risk and protective factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors. See: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/suicide/riskprotectivefactors.html
Muhsin, I think you are on the right track. The difficulty still exists of quantifying/counting (both number and severity) of risk/protective factors for a population in a given region where suicide prevention programs operate. Further thoughts?
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