Creating suicide-safer communities in British Columbia: A focused ethnography

Suicide prevention gatekeeper training is designed in order to enhance participants’ recognition of persons in distress, enhance skills in responding, and referrals to help. In response to rising suicide rates in British Columbia, Canada, two standardized gatekeeper training programs were implemented by the Canadian Mental Health Association between 2015- 2018. In order to explore their implementation within the dynamic and diverse contexts through the province, we conducted a focused ethnography informed by a relational constructionist framework of analysis. Our exploration over three phases of data collection, which included interviews, document analysis, and field observations, identified the network of interactions that both enabled and constrained various relationships, decisions, and opportunities for learning. Through the results of the present study, we indicated that the coordinators of the programs pivoted away from initial goals of training (i.e., number of individuals trained) towards community readiness, thereby generating pathways to helping, selling, and constructing responsibility to help as well as negotiating communities of place. These findings of the present study are discussed in relation to future large-scale suicide prevention efforts.