How Can We Use Technology to Improve Suicide Prevention?

In this course, Dr. Evan Kleiman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University asks three central questions to understand the relationship of technology to suicidality: (1) how technology helps us better understand people at risk for suicide; (2) how it can better help us predict suicide risk; and (3) how it can help us better prevent suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Dr. Kleiman summarises the results of several studies to present a balanced perspective, noting some surprising findings, such as that more data (e.g., EMA plus wearables) gave a less accurate picture of suicidal thoughts than EMA alone. Knowing how quickly suicidal individuals can escalate and de-escalate and knowing the current limits of technology can help us deploy it in the most useful way.