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Suicide Prevention

Started by mikeanestis, August 31, 2018, 10:58:08 AM

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mikeanestis

Hi folks -

I am an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi whose research focuses on suicide prevention. Some colleagues and I are looking to collect some preliminary data to help us understand in what ways risk is similar (and different) across a range of diverse populations with elevated suicide rates. Some of these groups overlap with one another quite a bit (e.g. gun owners, law enforcement, active duty military) and some are quite different (e.g. veterinarians, first time new mothers). Our goal is to recruit enough folks to consider groups in isolation or in comparison to one another so that we can understand better how risk shifts in nature from one group to another (and within broader groups that have substantial diversity within them).

One group that has been getting very little attention and whose perspective has been underrepresented in suicide research is individuals in the logging industry (and related professions) and I am hoping that folks here may be willing to take part in this anonymous survey. If you do, some of the items you answer will be ones asked of everyone and some will be unique to the group you indicate that you most identify with. Some of the items are repetitive (sorry...that's an unfortunate reality of scientific research), but we did out best to make the survey both comprehensive and short.  A few of the items likely seem ridiculous - there are validity checks to make sure folks are reading and responding carefully, which helps us with quality control on the back end.

Keep in mind that, although this post is specifically seeking individuals in the logging industry, we would be thrilled to have anyone take part. Eligibility simply depends upon whether you currently identify with one of the specific groups we are considering in this particular study.

I would be more than happy to receive feedback (michael.anestis@usm.edu) and hope that we are able to contribute something of value through our efforts.  That being said, I'm going out of town with my family for Labor Day Weekend, so I may be a little slow to reply over the next few days.

I posted a similar post to this one over on the general thread - apologies if you encounter both postings of the message.  I really appreciate your time and hope that you'll consider taking part.

The survey has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of USM. If you are interested in taking part, here is the link.
https://usmep.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1SrRFD6sn5ZGCih

TimRB

I bailed out of the survey early on--too many questions about guns for me.  I am sick to death of "scientific" studies that "prove" gun ownership is too dangerous.

Tim

mikeanestis

Tim -

Thanks for considering the survey.  We are not trying to "prove" anything though.  I live in south Mississippi and work with gun owners on a daily basis, particularly in the military.  Our questions on firearms help us understand the perspective of firearm owners (which helps prevent suicide prevention specialists from offering intervention ideas that gun owners would not want).  Given that the large majority of our sample will not be actively suicidal, it would not be possible to demonstrate firearms causing suicide anyway, so even if that had been our goal, we would not be equipped to accomplish it.

In all honesty, we're not looking for folks to give specific answers.  We want honesty, which then helps us provide the most effective care.  Also, although there certainly are a number of questions about firearms (for firearm owners), that is only one component of the survey and not the central focus of the study.

Thanks again.

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