Can an Infusion of Federal Funds Result in Sustainable Projects? An Evaluation of Suicide Prevention Programs.

Our study evaluated the sustainability of programs in early cohorts of the Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Memorial Act suicide prevention initiative, a major source of federal funding for youth suicide prevention among states, tribes, and institutions of higher education. We sought to: (1) determine whether suicide prevention activities initiated with federal support continued after funding ended, and (2) identify factors associated with sustainment. Thirty-three sites between 1 and 4 years beyond the end of their GLS grant participated in a retrospective online survey assessing their level of suicide prevention activity 1 year before, during (during-GLS), and 1 year after funding (after-GLS). We found that, on average, sites experienced a 6% decrease in their overall level of activity from during- to after-GLS. Twenty-two (67% of responding sites) exhibited either an increase in activity level or no more than a 10% decline from during- to after-GLS periods. After-GLS scores for the 11 remaining sites declined between 11 and 30% from their during-GLS levels. We conducted semi-structured follow-up interviews with 13 sites that successfully continued their activities to explore factors associated with sustainability. Our findings indicate that program actions in the during-GLS period associated with sustainability included: maintaining a sustainability mindset, developing and nurturing partnerships and relationships, embedding services in parent organizations, pursuing new and diversified funding, and implementing cost-reduction efficiencies. Actions in the after-GLS period associated with sustainability included: obtaining funding from other sources, reconfiguring, and maintaining continuous leadership.

Long-term effects of a parenting preventive intervention on young adults' painful feelings about divorce.

This study examined whether the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a parenting preventive intervention for divorced mothers that was designed to reduce children's postdivorce mental health problems, reduced painful feelings about divorce in young adults whose families had participated 15 years earlier. This study also explored whether NBP participation reduced the relations between young adults' painful feelings about divorce and their concurrent internalizing, externalizing, and substance use problems. Participants (M = 25.6 years; 50% female; 88% Caucasian) were from 240 families that had been recruited into a randomized experimental trial (NBP vs. literature control). Data from the pretest and 15-year follow-up were used. NBP participants reported less feelings of seeing life through a filter of divorce (e.g., thinking about how the divorce causes continued struggles for them) than those in the control condition. Program effects on maternal blame and acceptance of the divorce were moderated by pretest risk, a composite of divorce-related stressors and externalizing problems. NBP participants with elevated risk at program entry had lower levels of maternal blame. Program participation was associated with higher acceptance for those with elevated risk at program entry but lower acceptance for those with low risk at program entry. Program participation decreased the relations between maternal blame, acceptance of the divorce and filter of divorce and some, but not all, of the adjustment outcomes. These findings suggest that programs designed to help families after divorce have benefits in terms of long-term feelings about parental divorce as well as their relations with adjustment problems. (PsycINFO Database Record