Expanding Suicide Crisis Services to Text and Chat

Predmore, Zachary; Ramchand, Rajeev; Ayer, Lynsay; Kotzias, Virginia; Engel, Charles C.; Ebener, Patricia A.; Kemp, Janet; Karras, Elizabeth; Haas, Gretchen L.

doi:10.1027/0227-5910/a000460

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…As a whole, it is clear that this specific crisis line centre deals largely with calls in which callers are reporting current or past adult and child violence. Consistent with the centre's broader focus, it also ap- As previously discussed, crisis line centres are often the first contact for individuals reaching out for mental health-related services (Predmore et al, 2017). Rarely, though, has research focused on characterising the victimisation histories reported by callers, as we have done in the current study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…Research suggests that crisis lines are the first contact with mental health-related services for many people (e.g. Predmore et al, 2017), making them an especially important community and public health intervention. Given the vast current and potential utility of crisis lines, characterising the current trends and utilisation of these services is crucial to identifying targeted ways to improve such services.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Crisis line services: A 12‐month descriptive analysis of callers, call content, and referrals

Boness

Helle

Logan

2021

Health Soc Care Community

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Crisis lines are a valuable community resource that anonymously and freely serve those in acute crisis. As a result of anonymity, it has been difficult to fully characterise crisis line services. However, appraising and improving crisis line services for the communities they serve is essential, even with the additional difficulty anonymity poses. This study seeks to increase our understanding of current crisis services and utilisation via a characterisation of various aspects of a United States crisis line service centre over 12-months including features of calls (e.g. call length), callers (e.g. victimisation history), and information provided to the caller (e.g. referrals). We examine five crisis lines totalling 5,001 calls from October 2018 to September 2019.Descriptive information is provided on call volume, patterns across time, caller characteristics, victimisation types, and referrals. Although we were unable to assess prospective outcomes due to anonymity, 99.5% of callers that were asked (61.35% of all calls; n = 3,068) reported the call as helpful. This provides an important overview of crisis line services and suggests they are a valuable community health resource serving a range of callers. Given the findings of the present study, we conclude with a discussion of recommendations and implications for community crisis line centres and future research.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crisis line services: A 12‐month descriptive analysis of callers, call content, and referrals

Boness

Helle

Logan

2021

Health Soc Care Community

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Telephone crisis services (sometimes called 'hotlines') constitute a further example of an indicated intervention 246 . These services have existed since the 1950s 247 , and many have now embraced newer technology like online chat and text-messaging services 248 .…”

Section: [H2] Assessment and Determination Of Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suicide and suicide risk

Turecki

Brent²,

Gunnell

et al. 2019

Nat Rev Dis Primers

654

473

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although recent years have seen large decreases in the overall global rate of suicide fatalities, this trend is not reflected everywhere. Suicide and suicidal behaviour continue to present key challenges for public policy and health services, with increasing suicide deaths in some countries, such as the USA. The development of suicide risk is complex, involving contributions from biological (including genetics), psychological (such as certain personality traits), clinical (comorbid psychiatric illness), social and environmental factors. The involvement of multiple risk factors in conveying risk of suicide means that determining an individual's risk of suicide is challenging. Improving risk assessment, for example using computer testing and genetic screening, is an area of ongoing research. Prevention is key to reduce the number of suicide deaths, and current efforts include universal, selective and indicated interventions, although these interventions are often delivered in combination. These interventions, combined with psychological (such as cognitive behavioural therapy, caring contacts and safety planning) and pharmacological treatments (for example, clozapine and ketamine) and coordinated social and public health initiatives, should continue to improve the management of suicidal patients and decrease suicide-associated morbidity. [H1] Epidemiology Based on self-report survey data, the WHO has estimated that for every death by suicide ~20 people make suicide attempts 1. This ratio varies from country to country depending on the lethality of commonly used suicide methods. In all countries, the incidence of suicide attempts is highest in individuals 15-24 years of age. By comparison, the lowest rates of suicide is observed amongst young people <15 years of age, with the highest generally observed in people >75 years of age 1. However, the age-groups with the highest incidence at other ages vary from region to region; for example, in a 25

show abstract

“…We were not able to use a natural language processing program viable for this analysis in the Polish language. However, we hope that future analysis of medical forum content may be enhanced by the application of natural language processing methods [35]. Finally, the study does not provide the characteristics of the users.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Currently, there are many efforts to provide online interventions to individuals who present suicidal behaviour on the Internet [33,34]. For instance, the crisis support service for people with suicidal thoughts in the US is provided via both phone hotline and anonymous chat [35]. Similarly, it is worth considering informing the community about alarm symptoms as well as working up similar online interventions for individuals who search for information related to these symptoms.…”

Section: Main Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Answers to Queries among Anonymous Users with Gastroenterological Problems on an Internet Forum

Kamińśki

Borger

Prymas

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Internet forums are an attractive source of health-related information. We aimed to investigate threads in the gastroenterological section of a popular Polish medical forum for anonymous users. We characterised the following aspects in threads: the main problem of the original poster, declared ailments and rationale of the responses (rational, neutral, harmful or not related to the problem of the original poster). We analysed over 2717 forum threads initiated in the years 2010–2018. Users mostly asked for diagnosis of the problem [1814 (66.8%)], treatment [1056 (38.9%)] and diagnostic interpretation [308 (11.3%)]. The most commonly declared symptoms were abdominal pain [1046 (38.5%)], diarrhea [454 (16.7%)] and bloating [354 (13.0%)]. Alarm symptoms were mentioned in 309 (11.4%) threads. From the total 3550 responses, 1257 (35.4%) were assessed as rational, 693 (19.5%) as neutral, 157 (4.4%) as harmful and 1440 (40.6%) as not related to the user’s problem. The original poster’s declaration of blood in stool, dyspepsia, pain in the abdominal right lower quadrant, weight loss or inflammatory bowel disease was positively related to obtaining at least one potentially harmful response. Advice from anonymous users on Internet forums may be irrational and disregards alarm symptoms, which can delay the diagnosis of life-threatening diseases.

show abstract

Expanding Suicide Crisis Services to Text and Chat

Abstract: While new platforms offer promise, participants also indicated that chat services can supplement phone lines, but not replace them.

Cited by 39 publications

References 15 publications

Crisis line services: A 12‐month descriptive analysis of callers, call content, and referrals

Crisis line services: A 12‐month descriptive analysis of callers, call content, and referrals

Suicide and suicide risk

Analysis of Answers to Queries among Anonymous Users with Gastroenterological Problems on an Internet Forum

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About