Broad Health Condition Mental Health

Public Health





Specific Health ConditionSuicide

Health promotion/education





Trial Focus Prevention



Recruitment statusStopped early



Recruitment Details

Recruitment State

ACT



Anticipated date of first participant enrolment15/05/2017

Anticipated date of last participant enrolment15/05/2017

Phase of Trial Not Applicable

Has the study received ethics approval? Approved

Trial summary

The largest mortality risk facing young men is suicide, and their unwillingness to seek help for their mental health troubles greatly exacerbates this problem. Rather than blame men for their poor attitudes, some organisations are changing the nature of the public health message directed at young men to make it more male friendly. It is not known whether these interventions are having a positive effect on mens help-seeking attitudes and intentions, particularly among young men with indicated mental health problems, those with more stigmatising attitudes, or those who conform more strongly to gender norms. The current research project seeks to evaluate one such existing intervention, the Silence is Deadly Program, which has been delivered in ACT schools since 2014. This intervention is delivered by not-for-profit organisation Menslink in partnership with the state representative rugby league team (the Canberra Raiders) and uses role-modelling and social norming, as well as male-tailored vocabulary, to influence young mens help-seeking attitudes and intentions. The proposed research project will be conducted in 2017-2018, and will comprise a cluster randomised wait-list control trial that involves 8 ACT schools, totalling 800 male students who will be surveyed pre, post and three months after the intervention. The primary aim of the study is to determine the effectiveness of this tailored approach to suicide prevention and identify if it is differentially effective for participants with different levels of mental health symptoms, suicidal thoughts, stigmatizing attitudes towards seeking help and adherence to gender role norms. This analysis will be complemented by a qualitative investigation into the interventions effect on the culture of helping seeking in the school through semi-structured interviews with staff members. The research team has a strong track record of research in schools, service evaluation, stigma and help-seeking for mental health issues and suicide.