Abstract
In November 2021, Defence commissioned the University of Canberra (UC) to provide an evaluation of the Defence Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy (DMHWS) and associated Continuous Improvement Framework (CIF) (the CIF Evaluation Project). Early work of this evaluation project found that Defence monitoring and evaluation activities did not yet match the sophistication of many Defence suicide prevention
activities, a finding that was subsequently found to be true across other programs within the CIF System.
Given these early findings, the CIF Evaluation Project was rescoped from a traditional evaluation of program impact to an evaluation of program implementation and evaluation readiness. As part of this revised focus the suitability of survey measures proposed for monitoring suicide literacy, suicide stigma and help seeking intention across the Defence population was assessed. This assessment examined whether the proposed measures were suitable for monitoring change in population-wide conditions relevant to key objectives of the Australian Defence Force Suicide prevention Program (SPP).
This report provides a technical assessment of the suitability of key survey measures proposed for use to monitor levels of suicide literacy, suicide stigma and help-seeking intention across the Australian Defence for, namely:
to evaluate SPP outcomes:
1. Suicide literacy: the Literacy of Suicide Scale – short-form (LoSS)
2. Suicide stigma: the Stigma of Suicide Scale – short-form (SoSS)
3. Help seeking intention: the General Help Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ)
4. Psychological distress: The Kessler psychological distress scale, 5 item (K5) and 6 item (K6) versions
This report evaluates whether these measures are suitable for use in the short-term and long-term evaluation of the SPP. A separate report presents findings regarding levels of literacy, stigma, and help seeking intention across the Defence population.
activities, a finding that was subsequently found to be true across other programs within the CIF System.
Given these early findings, the CIF Evaluation Project was rescoped from a traditional evaluation of program impact to an evaluation of program implementation and evaluation readiness. As part of this revised focus the suitability of survey measures proposed for monitoring suicide literacy, suicide stigma and help seeking intention across the Defence population was assessed. This assessment examined whether the proposed measures were suitable for monitoring change in population-wide conditions relevant to key objectives of the Australian Defence Force Suicide prevention Program (SPP).
This report provides a technical assessment of the suitability of key survey measures proposed for use to monitor levels of suicide literacy, suicide stigma and help-seeking intention across the Australian Defence for, namely:
to evaluate SPP outcomes:
1. Suicide literacy: the Literacy of Suicide Scale – short-form (LoSS)
2. Suicide stigma: the Stigma of Suicide Scale – short-form (SoSS)
3. Help seeking intention: the General Help Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ)
4. Psychological distress: The Kessler psychological distress scale, 5 item (K5) and 6 item (K6) versions
This report evaluates whether these measures are suitable for use in the short-term and long-term evaluation of the SPP. A separate report presents findings regarding levels of literacy, stigma, and help seeking intention across the Defence population.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Commissioning body | Commonwealth Department of Defence |
| Number of pages | 105 |
| Publication status | Published - 2023 |
