The effect of multiple organizational interventions on suicidal behavior

The South African Police Service (SAPS) employs approximately 150000 people. One of the problems facing the organization is high levels of suicide and since the late 1990psilas several measures were taken to address this issue. These measures include compulsory post-critical incident debriefing, suicide prevention workshops, and changing the psychometric assessment toolkit to select newcomers to the organization. Since then the suicide rate decreased dramatically. However, because the SAPS is a complex organization set in an ever-changing post-apartheid society, it is not possible to deduct that the measures taken indeed had the desired effect. In this paper three questions are posed and addressed: do the present psychometric assessment tools used by the organization during recruitment influence suicidal behavior; are suicide rates per annum influenced by the number of suicide prevention workshops presented; and, are all employee groupings equally in need of services related to suicide prevention? The results indicate that those applicants selected for enlistment in the SAPS differ significantly (t =18.75; p < 0.001; d = 0.344 and x² =149; p < 0.001) from those not selected; that suicide rates and the number of suicide prevention workshops correlate (r = 0.48; p < 0.01); and that employee groupings differ in the amount of support they require (F = 4.30; p = 0.02). These results are discussed and recommendations are made.