How new technologies help prevent suicide

The concept of suicide encompasses 3 actions that do not always end with the tragic death of the person who commits it: 1) the thought or desire to kill oneself; 2) the unsuccessful attempt to kill oneself; and 3) the successful attempt to take the own life. With this, it could be said that suicide encompasses much more than the mere fact of taking one’s own life.  

According to the World Health Organization, suicide remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Thus, for example, in 2019 more than 700,000 people committed suicide in the world, that is, one in every 100 deaths in the world is due to suicide. On the other hand, although globally one can see signs of a reduction in the number of deaths by suicide, this is not the case in all population groups or in all countries, with even increases such as the United States, where it is the 11th cause of death in the country.

Although this is not always the case, links have been found between suicides and some type of disorder related to mental health such as depression, schizophrenia, or borderline personality disorder. There have even been indications that people with depression are almost 20 times more likely to die by suicide than people who do not suffer from said disease.

However, there are ways to prevent, or avoid, suicide by knowing the related risk factors and paying attention to the warning signs. Examples of risk factors may be a history of suicide in the family or suffering from chronic diseases. Examples of warning signs may be marked mood swings or the affected person’s social isolation.

Obviously, regardless of the risk factors, warning signs or causes of suicide attempts, it is important to offer help mechanisms that avoid tragic consequences.

Many of the mechanisms are local and offer help at the community or country level, including emails, helplines or offices to go to in case of need. However, this article focuses on offering some examples in which new technologies can also help prevent suicides.

Mobile Apps

With the rise of mobile devices, er can find applications on almost any topic. Thus, there are also very good mobile applications that can help prevent suicides. Many of these applications are aimed at the inhabitants of a specific country, since they incorporate notification mechanisms to professionals who can help people. For example, Stay Alive has been developed for the United Kingdom and offers tools such as emergency plans or videos and images of the important moments of the person at risk of suicide. notOK is a simple application that offers a big red button, which can alert nearby contacts about the need for help, also showing the location of the person concerned. The Prevensuic application is the first application in Spanish that seeks to prevent and address suicidal behavior, incorporating tools for both affected people and professionals. These are just a few examples, but there are more and more similar apps in different countries.

Other mobile applications like Mood Panda have other objectives. In this case, it is a diary of people’s moods. This diary can help to understand what causes have created certain effects. In addition, the diary can also be shared with professionals who can help in the corresponding therapies.

Video games

For many people, video games are only a means of distraction, but they have many other applications such as social awareness of mental problems. This has been published by TheGamer in one of its articles, which shows an interesting list of video games that can help to better understand the importance of mental health. Another successful video game is Silver, which aims to reduce the number of suicides among young people. The game helps to understand the relationship between feelings and behavior, as well as to manage emotions. To achieve its goal, the game is based on a virtual festival where different characters interrelate.

Social networks

Social networks are basically digital platforms made up of people with common interests. These networks generate a huge amount of personal information on a daily basis that can be analyzed by algorithms, generally based on artificial intelligence, to detect patterns that can determine wether a person is at risk of suicide. For example, some authors have automatically detected messages on Twitter (now known as X), which can predict suicide through a multimodal analysis.

Artificial intelligence for statistical models

Some researchers are creating artificial intelligence models, specifically based on machine learning algorithms, to create statistical models to determine a person’s risk of suicide. To do this, they use information such as electronic health records or demographic and social characteristics. These models can be accompanied by real-time monitoring of those people with a higher risk of suicide.

Chatbots make it possible to maintain dialogues with computer systems on practically any imaginable topic, providing an experience that is closer to what one would have with a real person. Thus, several chatbots have already been developed that can help with mental issues, although they should always be used under professional supervision. For example, the Suicide Prevention Chatbot allows volunteers to connect with people who need help while also offering people contact methods for professional help.

Virtual reality allows the creation of simulated scenarios in which a person has the feeling of being completely immersed. A team of researchers from the University of New South Wales in Sydney has carried out what is considered the first investigation of the effectiveness of the use of virtual reality to help prevent suicides, obtaining very positive and hopeful results. The immersion consists of a 10-minute experience, in which virtual scenarios of tropical jungles, snow-capped mountains or deserts are shown. The experience has helped to change the mood of the participants.

Virtual reality is also helping with suicide prevention among the military, which is often a priority in their training. In this case, team leaders have conversations with virtual soldiers who are having suicidal thoughts and the goal is to ensure they have the help they need to prevent their death. As is the case with other experiments, the results are being very positive and its use is going to be extended, even among the family of the soldiers.

Eye tracking technology uses a camera to observe how a person’s eyes view images on a computer screen. Thus, in a non-intrusive way, very important information can be obtained about eye movements, pupil dilation, gaze point or blinking. There are already several works in this line, such as iMotions, where they try to detect stimuli related to suicide.

Speech recognition

Other options have not yet been fully developed. For example, speech recognition through artificial intelligence is another of the booming technologies that has a large number of applications. The Early Mental Health Uncovering Framework and Dataset proposes to obtain data from mobile devices to assess suicide risk. Among all the proposed indicators, a voice analyzer stands out that, after the appropriate permissions, will be able to analyze the user’s audio, being able to detect elements in the voice that indicate depression or risk of suicide. This is closely related to the so-called digital phenotyping, which consists of obtaining as much data as possible from the mobile phone, digital watch, or other devices to make the best possible prediction.

Conclusions

Suicide is a serious problem that kills approximately 700,000 people every year in the world. However, according to the World Health Organization, there are about 20 attempts for every death. It is necessary to continue providing more and better tools that help affected people and mental health professionals. Among these tools, technology will have a lot to say in the present and in the future.