OC07 - School-Based Suicide Prevention

Strong Teens and Resilient Minds: Scale-up of a Multimodal School-Based Suicide Prevention Approach
August, 29 | 12:00 - 13:00

The STORM approach, which stands for Strong Teens and Resilient Minds, is a multimodal school-based depression and suicide prevention approach. It consists of four interventions: 1) universal mental health prevention in the form of mental health lessons in schools; 2) gatekeeper training for teachers and school personnel, in which they learn to recognize suicidality in adolescents, talk about suicide with adolescents who might have suicidal thoughts, and where to find professional help for adolescents who struggle with suicidality; 3) systematic, early detection of adolescents with depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behavior at school by public health professionals, and active referral to additional care if needed; 4) an effective, indicated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) based group intervention for adolescents with elevated depressive symptoms called ‘Op Volle Kracht’ (OVK, translates to At Full Force), which is based on elements of the Penn Resiliency Program. An integral part of the approach is collaboration within the network of education and care for adolescents. Various parties, including secondary schools, Public Health Services (in Dutch: GGD), specialized mental health care organizations and public officers from municipalities work together to form a supportive network around adolescents. As part of the Dutch National Agenda Suicide Prevention 2021-2025, the STORM approach is currently being scaled-up to new regions within the Netherlands. Scale-up is defined as “deliberate efforts to increase the impact of successfully tested health innovations so as to benefit more people and to foster policy and programme development on a lasting basis”. It involves the adoption and implementation of an innovation in new user settings. This requires applying strategies that fit the context of these new settings. Therefore, we developed an implementation plan for STORM in co-creation with practice stakeholders. This plan functions as a guidance for new regions that will implement STORM. The STORM implementation plan was developed following the steps of implementation mapping, which entails: 1) analysing barriers and facilitators for implementation, 2) formulating implementation objectives, 3) selecting implementation strategies from theory, 4) combining implementation strategies into a practical implementation plan, and 5) formulating an implementation evaluation plan. We went through these steps in collaboration with practice stakeholders and implementation leaders in new STORM regions, to ensure that the STORM implementation plan would fit practice needs. During the symposium, results across these five steps will be presented, with the main focus on what strategies we identified for implementing a multimodal school-based suicide prevention approach. Additionally, preliminary process evaluation outcomes will be presented.

Speakers