Mental Health Professionals' Competence and Current Practices Responding to Suicidality in Individuals with FASD
Bibliographic record
Abstract
People with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) experience elevated rates of mental health challenges compared to the general population. Of particular concern are the elevated rates of suicidality consistently reported among people with FASD. Despite these high prevalence rates, there are currently no FASD-informed or FASD-specific suicide assessment and intervention measures or practices. Given the elevated rates of suicidality among people with FASD, it is likely that they work with diverse mental health professionals (MHPs) to support their mental health. MHPs are therefore tasked with providing care to people with FASD experiencing suicidality in the absence of evidence to inform their assessment and intervention practices. The current study aimed to 1) examine whether MHPs feel competent to support individuals with FASD experiencing suicidality, 2) what factors influence their competence, willingness to assess and treat suicidality, and 3) what current practices MHPs are using to support people with FASD experiencing suicidality. Diverse MHPs (e.g., psychologists, counsellors, social workers, etc.) were recruited across Canada. 39 MHPs completed an online survey, including the Suicide Competency Inventory and questions pertaining to MHPs’ knowledge about FASD, attitudes about FASD, and current clinical practices related to supporting individuals with FASD experiencing suicidality. The results indicated that the MHPs in the current sample reported high levels of competence, willingness to assess, and willingness to treat suicidality. MHPs who had received more suicide-specific training reported higher perceived competence and willingness to treat suicidality. MHPs who believed that people with FASD could lead purposeful lives with suitable supports and resources and who had worked with fewer clients with FASD experiencing suicidality reported a greater willingness to assess suicidality. These results highlight that suicide assessment and intervention are distinct clinical practices predicted by unique factors. Further, the attitudes MHPs have about their clients with FASD impact their clinical practices related to suicide assessment. The current study provides initial insights into factors that can be targeted by specific training and professional development programs to increase professional competencies and prepare MHPs to effectively support people with FASD experiencing suicidality. In particular, it is important for professional training programs and professional development efforts to foster positive attitudes about FASD and target unique underlying skills relating to suicide assessment and intervention.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.010 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".