The effect of suicide severity and patient’s age on mental health professionals’ willingness to treat: The moderating effect of ageism

Figures & data

Figure 1. The study model.

Table 1. Demographic and professional characteristics of the sample (N = 368).

Variable	N (%)
Gender
Male	64 (17.3%)
Female	304 (82.7%)
Age (years), M (SD)	34.88 (9.12)
Profession
Psychologist	205 (55.7%)
Social worker	59 (16%)
Art therapist	76 (20.7%)
Psychiatrist	8 (2.1%)
Other therapists (e.g., clinical criminologists)	20 (5.5%)
Professional seniority (years), M (SD)	5.84 (7.44)
Training stage^2
Practitioner	130 (35.4%)
Intern	93 (25.2%)
Licensed therapist	70 (19%)
Experienced therapist (5+ years)	75 (20.4%)
Work setting
Public	199 (54%)
Private	85 (23%)
Combined	85 (23%)
Professional training in suicide prevention workshops (four hours or more).
Yes	120 (32.5%)
No	248 (67.5%)
Personal acquaintance with person who died by suicide
Yes	155 (42%)
No	213 (57.7%)
Professional acquaintance with person who died by suicide
Yes	73 (19.8%)
No	295 (80.2%)
Professional experience with older adult patients
Yes	72 (19.5%)
No	297 (80.5%)

Note. ¹Categorical variables are presented in frequencies (and percentages). Continuous variables are presented in means (and standard deviations). ²Training phase refers to professional ranks rather than academic degrees as follows: Practitioner—MA student under training; Intern—MA graduate in internship; Licensed therapist—a therapist that completed their training; Supervising therapist—a therapist that tutors and supervises interns and practitioners.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of study variables (N = 368).

Variable	Mean	SD
Willingness-to-treat	4.81	1.40
Likelihood-to-refer	4.98	1.11
Ageism—Contribution dimension	2.41	0.54
Ageism—Avoidance dimension	2.73	0.78
Ageism—Stereotypes dimension	2.27	0.65

Figure 2. Willingness to treat and the likelihood of refer out a hypothetical patient as a function of the patient’s suicidality severity (depressive/SI/SA) and patient’s age (young/old) (N = 368).

Note. *p <. 05, **p <.01, ***p <.001. SI: Suicide ideation; SA: Suicide attempt.

Table 3. Intercorrelations between the study variables and outcome measures of willingness-to-treat and likely-to-refer (N = 368).

Variable	Willingness to treat	Likelihood to refer
SI + SA vs. Depressive symptoms	−.25**	.16**
SA vs. SI + Depressive symptoms	−.23**	.14**
Years of experience	−.09	.06
Experience with old patients (=1)	.10	−.02
Ageism—Contribution dimension	−.06	−.02
Ageism—Avoidance dimension	−.15**	−.01
Ageism—Stereotypes dimension	−.13*	.11*

Note. *p < .05. **p < .01. SI: Suicide ideation; SA: Suicide attempt.

Figure 3. Willingness to treat as a function of therapists’ ageist stereotypes beliefs, moderate by patients’ suicidality severity (N = 368).