This study assessed the impact of safeTALK training across nine Manitoba schools, with participants including teachers, students, parents, and support staff. Findings indicated that safeTALK improved participants' self-assessed abilities to recognize when someone had thoughts of suicide and take appropriate steps in connecting them to safety. The study looked for iatrogenic safety effects as a result of training and found none, indicating that safeTALK posed no danger to any participants. A smaller follow-up study also looked at interventions, finding that a plurality of safeTALK participants reported carrying out an intervention based on their training.

This study was conducted by researchers from Orygen, Australia’s National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and New York’s Columbia University. It examined the impact of safeTALK training for high school students in Australia, finding increases in knowledge about suicide, confidence in talking about issues related to suicide, willingness to talk about suicide, and likelihood of offering and seeking help. The study also found that safeTALK was safe for the school students and that it had no ill effects on their mental health. Study link.

Conducted by the Niagara Suicide Prevention Coalition and Distress Centre Niagara, this study discovered that over 90% of participants felt “mostly prepared” or “well prepared” to ask someone about suicide after attending safeTALK, whereas less than 50% felt this way beforehand. In summary, the researchers wrote: “The resounding feedback was that those undertaking the training found it extremely useful if not for themselves, then for others (especially young people and general lay groups).”

Conducted by the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, among others, this study found “…real and substantial improvements following safeTALK in (participants’) perceptions of their capabilities in dealing with a person who may be considering suicide and that these improvements did not deteriorate over a three-month period” (p. 43). Participants included veterans, veteran family members and veteran support providers.

From the University of Toronto, this dissertation examined the impact of safeTALK and one other training program among transit workers, including constables, train operators, supervisors and others. The author found increased “knowledge of suicide and suicidal behavior, enhanced positive attitudes toward the suicidal individual, suicide intervention, and improved intervention skills” (p. ii) through the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Published in the journal Veterinary Record, this study found that safeTALK increased the likelihood that veterinary students would recognize signs of suicide risk, ask about suicide, and connect someone at risk with help.

Conducted by researchers from the Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health, this study focused on the use of safeTALK among a variety of audiences including mental health, physical health, education, law enforcement and corrections. The study found high levels of satisfaction and increased skills and confidence to intervene with someone at risk for suicide.

Published in the Journal of American College Health, this study examined the impact of ASIST training for college staff including faculty, counselors, administrators, and other support personnel. The results showed improvement in both self-assessed competencies and objective measures using the SIRI-2 scale compared to a control group. Areas of improvement included suicide intervention skills, attitudes toward suicide, knowledge of suicide, and comfort, competence, and confidence in responding to individuals at risk. The authors wrote: “these results agree with others that show ASIST increases SI- [suicide intervention] skills.”

Published in the Journal of Counseling and Development, this study found that ASIST-trained school staff, including teachers and counsellors, saw improved knowledge and competencies on an objective scale (SIRI-2) compared to a control group. The areas of improvement included suicide intervention skills, attitudes toward suicide, knowledge of suicide, and comfort, competence, and confidence in responding to individuals at risk. The authors wrote that their findings provide “support for the use of ASIST in schools, particularly those in rural areas with limited access to mental health services.”

Conducted by researchers from the RAND Corporation, this cost-benefit analysis found that California’s implementation of ASIST will significantly reduce suicide attempts, deaths, and associated costs for years to come. Drawing on a wide cross-section of data, the research illustrates how ASIST training is a cost-effective way to save lives on a large scale.

Published in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, this Randomized Controlled Study found that callers who talked to a crisis line counselor trained in ASIST were statistically less suicidal, less depressed, less overwhelmed, and more hopeful than callers who talked to a crisis line counselor trained in a method other than ASIST. On the basis of this study, ASIST was listed on the United States NREPP (National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices) under the new, stricter guidelines.

This qualitative study of ASIST training participants found increased self-efficacy, heightened awareness, improved communication skills, increased information sharing and increased interventions due to ASIST training.

This Scottish study of ASIST found increased knowledge, helping attitudes, skills and interventions in ASIST-trained caregivers in addition to broad reductions stigma and increased suicide prevention awareness within communities and organizations.

Published in Psychiatric Quarterly, this study demonstrated that ASIST training in a large community hospital contributed to improved clinical outcomes for consumers. Outcomes associated with ASIST training included increased identification of those at risk for suicide and a corresponding reduction in hospital admissions as hospital staff were better able to assess risk and provide appropriate alternatives to hospitalization.