A Study to Assess the effectiveness of self-instructional module regarding awareness of suicide prevention helpline number among people of selected area of Mehsana city

Introduction: Suicide is an act of taking once own life voluntarily. The word suicide is derived from two Latin words Sui meaning self and “cedere” meaning to kill oneself. Hence suicide is an act of willfully ending one’s own life. Suicide is a type of deliberate self-harm (DSH) and is defined as a human act of self-intentioned and self – inflected cessation (death). Most often it ends with a fatal outcome. Removing suicide from the category of sin and crime, it was considered a psychiatric illness only from 19th century. Suicide was not discovered to be disease, it was declared to be one” (vilza veith, 1969).1 Due to lack of awareness and stigma attached with mental health issue, people do not come forward for treatment. GVK EMRI in partnership with Government of Gujarat launched suicide prevention helpline 104. Linkage to support group for reducing cause of depression.2 Design: A quantitative approach using quasi experimental one group pre-test post-test research design. Participants: 100 people were selected using Probability flip coin sampling technique in Mehsana city. Interventions: Self- instructional module was given to the people. Tool: Self-Structured Knowledge Questionnaire was used to assess the level of Knowledge among people. Results: With regard to pre test level of knowledge it shows that, maximum 57(57%) participants were having poor knowledge, 43(43%). During post-test maximum 62(62%) of participants were having good knowledge and remaining 38(38%) of participants were had average knowledge. In pre test, participants mean was 8.08, median with standard deviation 4.679. In post test, participants mean was 18.31 with standard deviation 4.388. The calculated ‘t’ value (15.959) was greater than the table value (1.98) at 0.05 level of significance. The Self- instructional module was effective in increasing the awareness of suicide prevention helpline number among people. Chi-square test is used to associate the level of awareness of pre-test with their selected demographic variable. Conclusion: The findings of the study revealed that self- instructional module helps in improving awareness regarding suicide prevention helpline number among people.