BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Family Medicine and Primary Care
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1599900
This article is part of the Research TopicAI with Insight: Explainable Approaches to Mental Health Screening and Diagnostic Tools in HealthcareView all 6 articles
A Step Toward the Future? Evaluating GenAI QPR Simulation Training for Mental Health Gatekeepers Brief Research Report
Provisionally accepted
- 1Tel-Hai College, Tel Hai, Israel
- 2Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv District, Israel
- 3Ruppin Academic Center, Hadera, Israel
- 4University of Haifa, Haifa, Haifa, Israel
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Background: Suicide remains a leading cause of preventable death, placing a significant burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Traditional training programs, such as Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR), require structured practice and continuous reinforcement to ensure competency. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI)-based simulators into medical training offers a promising, scalable approach for improving suicide prevention skills in healthcare settings. This study evaluates the effectiveness of an AI-driven simulator in enhancing QPR-related competencies.Methods: A total of 89 adult participants from the community, all of whom were mental health professionals (including social workers, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and physicians), completed pre- and post-intervention assessments measuring self-efficacy and willingness to support individuals at risk of suicide. Participants engaged in real-time interactions with an AI-powered simulator that mimicked conversations with at-risk individuals, enabling dynamic practice of QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) skills. Data were collected in June 2024. Results: Post-intervention self-efficacy scores showed a significant increase. Willingness-to-support scores demonstrated a slight but non-significant improvement. Higher QPR self-efficacy correlated positively with increased willingness to support. Qualitative feedback indicated that participants found the simulator realistic and beneficial for skill acquisition, although some expressed concerns regarding the potential reduction of human interaction in mental health training.Conclusions: AI-driven simulators hold promise as scalable, accessible, and clinically relevant tools for suicide prevention training
Keywords: suicide prevention, gatekeeper training, artificial intelligence, medical simulation, Digital Health, Mental health professionals, Primary Care, Emergency Medicine
Received: 25 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Levkovich, Haber, Levi-Belz and Elyoseph. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Inbar Levkovich, Tel-Hai College, Tel Hai, Israel
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