MATES in Manufacturing: A workplace suicide prevention program cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) for employees in the manufacturing industry

INTERVENTION: MATES in Manufacturing is an adaptation of the MATES in Construction workplace suicide prevention program. A detailed program logic is available at https://mates.org.au/programlogic. In brief, MATES is an industry‐based community development approach to mental health and suicide prevention. MATES does not provide clinical services but seeks to connect distressed workers to help. A one‐hour universal General Awareness Training (GAT) is provided for all workers on a site. Volunteers are recruited during the GAT, and subsequently trained as 'Connectors'‐‐the persons on site who can ‘connect’ workers in need to appropriate sources of help. Workers potentially in need of help can either approach a Connector him‐ or herself, or Connector might approach someone based on concerns expressed by a workmate. ‘Help’ in this context is for mental health or suicidality, and for financial, gambling, relationship, and other issues that could affect mental health. Volunteers are the key to the fabric of the MATES program, by design aiming for an average of 1/20 workers on‐site trained as Connectors. Implementation of GAT training on site is the starting point of the intervention. For those sites randomly assigned to intervention, the intervention will occur for 12 months during the study period, and then will continue beyond then at the discretion of the participating sites. Similarly, for sites randomly assigned to wait‐list control, the intervention will begin 6 months from the date of initiation at intervention sites, and continue beyond the study period at the discretion of the participating sites. The MATES program also includes Field Officers, who are employed directly by MATES to provide ongoing support to MATES sites through fortnightly site visits, estab CONDITION: Mental Health ‐ Suicide Public Health ‐ Health promotion/education suicide prevention literacy;help‐seeking behaviours;suicidality;psychological distress; ; suicide prevention literacy ; help‐seeking behaviours ; suicidality ; psychological distress SECONDARY OUTCOME: Psychological distress: Psychological distress will be measured using items from the Kessler‐6 instrument (K6) (Kessler et al., 2003). Participants will be asked to indicate the response that best described their feelings in the past four weeks. Their responses will be ranked from 0 (none of the time) to 4 (all of the time). The six items will be combined to give a set of responses ranging from 0 to 24. ; ; ; Osman, A., Bagge, C. L., Gutierrez, P. M., Konick, L. C., Kopper, B. A., & Barrios, F. X. (2001). The Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire‐Revised (SBQ‐R): Validation with clinical and nonclinical samples. Assessment, 8(4), 443‐454. https://doi.org/10.1177/107319110100800409[Baseline, pre‐randomisation assessments will be conducted within one‐two months before initiation of the intervention. For sites randomly assigned to treatment/intervention, intervention initiation will mark time 0, and outcomes will be assessed again at 6 and 12 months post‐initiation of intervention. For sites randomly assigned to wait‐list control, intervention initiation at treatment sites will mark time 0, and outcomes will be assessed again at 6 and 12 months.] INCLUSION CRITERIA: Employees in the manufacturing industry who are working at participating sites of the MATES in Manufacturing program, including permanent and casual employees. PRIMARY OUTCOME: Help‐seeking intentions will be measured using the General Help‐seeking Behaviour Questionnaire (GHSQ). GSHQ questions will be modified to present twelve different sources of help seeking (including a MATES worker or Connector and an open‐ended option for ‘other’), and participants will be asked to rank their help‐seeking intentions “if you were feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope”; this phrasing was derived from a qualitative study in blue‐collar male workers when asked about the best language to capture experiences of either personal/emotional problems or suicidal thoughts. Intentions will be ranked from extremely unlikely to extremely likely on a 7‐point scale (Wilson, Deane, Ciarrochi, & Rickwood, 2005). A single summary measure across all the 12 options will be computed by summing the responses (reverse scoring the ‘no one’ option). ; ; Wilson, C. J., Deane, F. P., Ciarrochi, J. V., & Rickwood, D. (2005). Measuring help seeking intentions: Properties of the general help seeking questionnaire. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 39(1), 15‐28. https://ro.uow.edu.au/hbspapers/1527/[Baseline, pre‐randomisation assessments will be conducted within one‐two months before initiation of the intervention. For sites randomly assigned to treatment/intervention, intervention initiation will mark time 0, and outcomes will be assessed again at 6 and 12 months post‐initiation of intervention. For sites randomly assigned to wait‐list control, intervention initiation at treatment sites will mark time 0, and outcomes will be assessed again at 6 and 12 months.] ; Kessler, R. C., Barker, P. R., Colpe, L. J., Epstein, J. F., Gfroerer, J. C., Hiripi, E., Howes, M. J., Normand, S. T., Manderscheid, R. W., & Walters, E. E. (2003). Screening for serious mental illness in the general population. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60(2), 184‐189. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.60.2.184[Baseline, pre‐randomisation assessments will be conducted within one‐two months before initiation of the intervention. For sites randomly assigned to treatment/intervention, intervention initiation will mark time 0, and outcomes will be assessed again at 6 and 12 months post‐initiation of intervention. For sites randomly assigned to wait‐list control, intervention initiation at treatment sites will mark time 0, and outcomes will be assessed again at 6 and 12 months.] Suicidality: Suicidal ideation and likelihood of future suicidal behaviour will be measured using 2‐items from the 4‐item version of the Suicidal Behaviour Questionnaire‐Revised (SBQ‐R) (Osman et al., 2001). The first item assesses the frequency of suicidal ideation in the past 6 months, and responses will be dichotomised (never/ever). The second item measures the likelihood of suicidal behaviour in the future (no chance/unlikely/likely).