Suicide prevention in construction: Evaluating a suicide prevention gatekeeper training

Suicide is a public health concern, with almost 50,000 deaths by suicide in the United States in 2022. The construction industry has the 2^nd highest rate of death by suicide among all industry groups in the United States, and when defined by occupation, construction has the highest rate for men. This paper describes and evaluates a brief gatekeeper suicide prevention training program designed for the construction industry with focus on whether participants report greater perceived knowledge about suicide and suicide prevention and self-perceived competence helping someone compared immediately post- to immediately pre- training. Participants were 665 training attendees between August 5, 2022 and May 31, 2023, who had matched immediately pre- and post-training evaluation responses. A mixed methods pre- and post-training intervention design with no control group was used. Results suggest that participating in the program increased self-perceived knowledge about suicide prevention, confidence identifying risk factors, and comfort talking to others about suicide immediately post-training. The training workshop appears to not only increase participant knowledge immediately post-training but to also foster skills that may lead to participants being more likely to connect with others struggling with thoughts of suicide.