Preparing student pharmacists to communicate with and refer individuals with suicide warning signs: Presenter(s): Delesha Carpenter, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States

Teaching pharmacy professionals to act as gatekeepers who recognize suicide warning signs and refer at-risk patients is part of a holistic public health approach to suicide prevention. We describe how Pharm-SAVES, a novel online gatekeeper training program, impacted student pharmacist knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavior. Student pharmacists (N=146) from two U.S. universities completed Pharm-SAVES in required courses in September 2021. A 20-minute presentation described the steps of Pharm-SAVES (recognize Signs, Ask about suicide, Validate feelings, Expedite a National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) referral, and Set a follow-up reminder). The training also included two video cases (15 minutes total), a 10-minute debrief, and a game about medications labelled for suicide risk. Suicide prevention knowledge (2 items) and self-efficacy (7 items measured on a 5-point scale) were measured anonymously online using pre- and post-tests. A post-test video role-play assessed self-efficacy to engage in Pharm-SAVES steps (4 items; range 1-5). In December, students anonymously reported online whether they had used Pharm-SAVES in practice. Descriptive statistics were calculated and paired samples t-tests compared pre- and post-test scores (alpha=0.05). Few students had prior suicide prevention training (9%). Mean knowledge improved from pre- (1.26) to post-test (1.74) (p<0.001) as did mean self-efficacy (pre-= 2.99; post-test=4.04; p<0.001). Students were least confident asking about suicide (Mean=3.39), moderately confident calling the NSPL (Mean=3.86) or sharing NSPL contact information (Mean=3.73), and most confident following up with the patient (Mean=4.00). By December, 17 (12%) students had recognized someone with suicide warning signs, with 9 asking that person about suicide, 13 validating feelings, 3 calling the NSPL, and 6 sharing NSPL contact information. Pharm-SAVES increased PharmD students’ suicide prevention knowledge and self-efficacy, with more than 1 in 10 reporting roles as gatekeepers in less than 15 weeks. Pharm-SAVES can be easily disseminated for asynchronous or synchronous instruction.