Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) Suicide Prevention Training Among Individuals Employed in the Veterinary Industry

Abstract

Objective: Individuals who work in the veterinary industry are at increased risk of poor mental health outcomes and suicide. Rates of serious psychological distress has been worsening amongst this population over recent years. Veterinarians and veterinary technicians are up to five times more likely to attempt suicide in comparison to the general public. There are limited data available on veterinary assistants and additional support staff that work in the industry. Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) is a suicide prevention training program shown to have both short-term and long-term benefits. QPR is offered for free to members of the American Veterinary Medical Association; however, there are no known studies looking at QPR’s effectiveness within the veterinary industry. The purpose of this project is to determine if QPR training is effective in increasing the knowledge surrounding suicide prevention so that individuals working in the veterinary industry are better equipped to identify and refer at-risk colleagues.

Methods: Participants completed a pretest, a QPR online education module, and a posttest. Descriptive statistics and a paired Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to analyze the results.

Results: QPR suicide prevention training resulted in an increase in score for all questions between the pre- and post-test, with seven out of nine having statistical significance.

Conclusions: QPR is a suicide prevention training that can be used to teach individuals who do not have a background in mental health how to recognize warning signs of suicide, interact with an individual who may be experiencing suicidal thoughts, and guide the individual to seek professional help. Increasing awareness and knowledge on the topic can help individuals within the veterinary industry identify at-risk colleagues, improve mental health outcomes, and reduce the number of suicides within the industry.