Is suicide training sufficient for psychology trainees to respond appropriately to suicidal clients?

This study reports the frequency of suicide training for current psychology trainees. Additionally,the research uses the Suicide Intervention Response Inventory – Second Edition (SIRI-2) to assess psychology trainees’ ability to respond appropriately to suicidal clients. This study compares scores on the SIRI-2 between participants who are in pre-internship years of training and those currently in internship or having completed internship training. Finally, this study compares SIRI-2 scores between high training, low training, and no-training groups, as well as the scores of no-training versus training groups. Findings indicate no statistically significant difference in SIRI-2 scores between participants early in their programs and those who received training later in their programs. Also, the study shows no statistically significant difference between scores of high, low, and no-training groups. However, research found a statistically significant difference between no-training and training groups, indicating that any amount of training provided to students could increase their ability to respond appropriately to suicidal clients.