Empirical Articles Mental Health Workers’ Views About Their Suicide Prevention Role Virginia Ross abc , Anoop Sankaranarayanan b , Terry J. Lewin abc , Mick Hunter* abc [a] School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. [b] Hunter New England Local Health District, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. [c] Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Abstract Aim: Mental Health workers bear responsibility for preventing suicide in their client group. Survey studies have indicated that staff can be seriously adversely affected when a client suicides. The aim of the current study is to describe and evaluate the effects on mental health (MH) workers of their ongoing role in managing suicidal behaviours and to identify the thoughts and feelings associated with this role. Method: A survey was administered to 135 MH workers via an on-line self-report vehicle. The survey comprised standardised measures of anxiety and burnout as well as a questionnaire developed for this study concerning perceptions and attitudes to suicide and suicide prevention. Results: Factor analysis of 12 retained items of the questionnaire identified three factors: 1) preventability beliefs (beliefs about suicide being always and/or permanently preventable); 2) associated distress (stress/anxiety about managing suicidal behaviour); and 3) the prevention role (covering views about personal roles and responsibilities in preventing suicidal behaviours). Analysis of these factors found that many MH workers experience an elevation of stress/anxiety in relation to their role in managing suicidal behaviours. This distress was associated with the emotional exhaustion component of burnout. Measures showed adverse responses were higher for outpatient than inpatient workers; for those who had received generic training in suicide prevention: and for those who had experienced a workplace related client suicide. Conclusion: There is a need for the development of appropriate self-care strategies to alleviate stress in MH workers exposed to suicide. Keywords: mental health workers, suicide prevention, impact of role, emotional exhaustion, burnout Psychology, Community & Health, 2016, Vol. 5(1), 1–15, doi:10.5964/pch.v5i1.174 Received: 2015-10-09. Accepted: 2016-03-08. Published (VoR): 2016-03-24. Handling Editor: Filipa Pimenta, William James Center for Research (WJCR), ISPA – Instituto Universitário, Lisbon, Portugal *Corresponding author at: Mick Hunter, School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia. E-mail: mick.hunter@newcastle.edu.au This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction World Health Organisation (WHO) reports (www.who.int) indicate that suicide is one of three leading causes of death in those between 15-44 years of age and a problem that contributes significantly to disease burden. The WHO estimates that almost one million people suicide each year. In Australia, official reports (ABS, 2010) show that 2,132 Australians died by suicide in 2009 – representing 1.6% of all deaths for that year. That suicide causes much concern is indicated by the significant funding which has been devoted over the past 20 years to research intended to provide better understanding of the phenomenon (Wasserman & Wasserman, 2009). Such research is intended to inform the implementation of strategies targeting the reduction of suicide frequency. Psychology, Community & Health pch.psychopen.eu | 2182-438X