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Evaluation of a culturally sensitive social and emotional well-being program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

  • Description
    Objective: To evaluate Deadly Thinking, a social and emotional well-being promotion program targeted to remote and rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Deadly Thinking aims to improve emotional health literacy, psychological well-being and attitudes towards associated help-seeking.

    Design: Participants completed pre/post-test evaluations via a brief self-report survey immediately before and after the Deadly Thinking workshop.

    Participants: Data were obtained from 413 participants (69.8% female, mean age 41.6 years), of whom 70.4% identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.

    Intervention: Deadly Thinking workshops involve participant's engaging with a series of videos and facilitated group discussions with other participants related to social and emotional well-being topics relevant to individuals and communities.

    Main outcome measures: Participants completed measures of psychological distress, suicidal ideation, substance use, changes in attitudes towards help-seeking and help-seeking intentions and satisfaction with the workshop. Additionally, participants in a train-the-trainer workshop rated their perceived confidence to deliver the program post-workshop.

    Result: Participants reported positive perceptions of community safety and well-being and low rates of marked distress, with no significant difference between train-the-trainer and community workshop participants. Results indicated significant improvement in help-seeking intentions post-workshop and high rates of satisfaction with workshop components.

    Conclusion: Initial evaluation indicates good acceptability and feasibility of delivering the Deadly Thinking program in rural and remote Indigenous communities; however, more robust evaluation of the program is warranted using controlled conditions to measure effectiveness, particularly for changing in help-seeking behaviour.
  • Regions in scope
    Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in rural and regional Australia
  • Funding entity
    Rural and remote mental health Ltd (RRMH)
  • Research/evaluation entity
    Orygen
  • Status
    Completed
  • End date
    2020
  • Released to public
    Yes
  • Report available

    Evaluation of a culturally sensitive social and emotional well-being program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

  • Categories
    Mental health, Social and emotional wellbeing, Suicide prevention
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