Fostering a Research Practice Partnership to Understand the Community Needs for Addressing Suicide Prevention among Youth in Klamath County
| dc.contributor.advisor | Seeley, John | |
| dc.contributor.author | Thomas, John | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-02-18T17:44:39Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-02-18T17:44:39Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-02-18 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst youth in the United States, and the issue is worsening each year. The issue is particularly prevalent within American Indian communities, where numerous risk factors for suicide are more commonplace than in other groups. To prevent these tragedies from occurring, it is crucial that young people are able to access effective mental healthcare support, and that the educators and community members who regularly work with the youth are able to identify the warning signs for suicide and make the appropriate referrals. All too often, the youth suicide prevention strategies that are in place are not fit for this purpose. The research in this dissertation takes place in Klamath County, an area of Oregon with a relatively large American Indian population, and a suicide rate which is more than triple the nationwide average. A research-practice partnership (RPP) was initiated so that experts from the practice and the academic communities could collaborate to better understand the context around youth suicide prevention in the county, and together formulate an action plan for improving the accessibility and effectiveness of youth mental health services in the area. In total, three pieces of research conducted within the RPP are presented in this dissertation. The first study (the Klamath County Community Needs Assessment) sought to survey professionals’ perceptions of the most urgent youth suicide prevention needs and barriers, their preferences regarding youth suicide prevention training, and their awareness of current youth suicide prevention resources in the county. An online survey was sent to local healthcare, education, and community practitioners, and was completed by 186 respondents in total. The results revealed that there was a particularly strong perceived need for more youth mental health services, and greater access to existing services. The second study (the Klamath County Youth Survey) aimed to survey the youth of Klamath County themselves, to better understand their own views around mental health support and youth suicide prevention. An online survey was sent out at one elementary school and one high school and was completed by 156 children in total. The results showed that the youth tended to have slightly negative views of the mental health services available at their school. Many students were unaware that their school offered mental health support, and others were aware of the support but were afraid to access it due to general anxiety or worries about their family finding out. Finally, the third study was more reflective, and aimed to explore the extent to which the RPP was conducted in accordance with best-practice guidelines. To do this, a content analysis was performed on the meeting minutes and agendas of the RPP, using a recognized framework for RPPs in education as the coding scheme. The content analysis confirmed that the RPP had met the majority of the criteria for effectiveness, although more could have been done to embed a culture of research and evidence use within the practice community. Overall, using the approach of the RPP enabled a reflexive and iterative approach to be taken to address the problem of youth suicide in Klamath County, harnessing the expertise of both practitioners and researchers. The studies have taken into account the perspectives of the intended beneficiaries of the project (i.e., Klamath County youth) as well as the professionals responsible for making referrals to or delivering mental health services in the county, and used this to identify numerous opportunities for improving existing services. The results from the studies have directly informed the creation of an action plan aimed at reducing youth suicidal ideation and behavior in Klamath County. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27077 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.title | Fostering a Research Practice Partnership to Understand the Community Needs for Addressing Suicide Prevention among Youth in Klamath County | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of Education Studies | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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