AAS Program Evaluation & Outcomes 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework requires communities to complete which step BEFORE selecting a suicide prevention program?
- Pilot testing the program with a small cohort
- Assessing community needs and available resources (Correct answer)
- Applying for federal funding grants
- Training all community gatekeepers
Correct answer: Assessing community needs and available resources
The SPF begins with assessment of community epidemiology and capacity before programs are selected or implemented.
Question 2: Which data source is MOST useful for tracking trends in nonfatal suicide attempts at the community level?
- Vital statistics death certificates
- Emergency department surveillance data (Correct answer)
- Coroner autopsy reports only
- School counselor referral logs
Correct answer: Emergency department surveillance data
Emergency department data capture nonfatal self-harm and suicide attempt visits and are used widely for community-level surveillance of attempts.
Question 3: In the RE-AIM framework applied to suicide prevention, 'Maintenance' refers to:
- Whether participants sustain behavior change over time at the individual level
- Whether the setting continues to deliver the program at 6+ months after initial adoption (Correct answer)
- The cost of maintaining program infrastructure
- The rate at which staff turnover affects delivery
Correct answer: Whether the setting continues to deliver the program at 6+ months after initial adoption
In RE-AIM, Maintenance has a setting-level meaning: whether organizations sustain program delivery over time, beyond initial implementation.
Question 4: A program serving Indigenous communities shows improved knowledge scores but no change in help-seeking behavior. The MOST likely explanation an evaluator should explore first is:
- The program was too long for participants to complete
- Cultural barriers to help-seeking that the program did not address (Correct answer)
- Insufficient statistical power due to small sample size
- Ceiling effects on the knowledge measure at baseline
Correct answer: Cultural barriers to help-seeking that the program did not address
Cultural norms, stigma, and mistrust of services in Indigenous communities can prevent knowledge gains from translating into help-seeking behavior.
Question 5: An evaluator conducting a needs assessment discovers that a county's suicide rate is significantly higher among middle-aged men than in state data. This finding should primarily inform:
- The selection of a universal school-based program for all youth
- Targeting program resources and messages specifically toward middle-aged men in that county (Correct answer)
- Reducing the program budget since the problem affects fewer people
- Waiting for national data to confirm the local trend before acting
Correct answer: Targeting program resources and messages specifically toward middle-aged men in that county
Needs assessment findings should directly guide targeting and tailoring of prevention resources to the highest-risk group identified locally.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes the purpose of a program evaluation dissemination plan?
- To ensure findings reach relevant stakeholders and can inform future funding and practice decisions (Correct answer)
- To protect confidential participant data from public release
- To document staff training completion for accreditation purposes
- To satisfy IRB protocol requirements after study closure
Correct answer: To ensure findings reach relevant stakeholders and can inform future funding and practice decisions
A dissemination plan specifies how, to whom, and when findings will be shared so they can influence policy, practice, and funding decisions.
Question 7: When a gatekeeper training program shows positive effects in research trials but weak effects when broadly implemented, this gap is BEST described as:
- Sampling bias in the original research
- The research-to-practice or efficacy-to-effectiveness gap (Correct answer)
- A failure of participant motivation in community settings
- Insufficient program duration in real-world delivery
Correct answer: The research-to-practice or efficacy-to-effectiveness gap
The efficacy-to-effectiveness gap occurs when programs that work under controlled research conditions show weaker results in routine, real-world implementation.
AAS Program Evaluation & Outcomes 5
The SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework requires communities to complete which step BEFORE selecting a suicide prevention program?