Acceptability and Potential Impact of the #chatsafe Suicide Postvention Response Among Young People Who Have Been Exposed to Suicide: Pilot Study

Abstract

Background Young people are more likely to be affected by suicide contagion, and there are concerns about the role social media plays in the development and maintenance of suicide clusters or in facilitating imitative suicidal behavior. However, social media also presents an opportunity to provide real-time and age-appropriate suicide prevention information, which could be an important component of suicide postvention activities. Objective This study aimed to test an intervention designed to equip young people to communicate safely online about suicide (#chatsafe) with a sample of young people who had recently been exposed to a suicide or suicide attempt, with a view to determining the role social media can play as part of a postvention response. Methods A sample of 266 young people from Australia, aged 16 to 25 years, were recruited to participate in the study. They were eligible if they had been exposed to a suicide or knew of a suicide attempt in the past 2 years. All participants received the #chatsafe intervention, which comprised 6 pieces of social media content that were sent to them weekly via direct message through Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat. Participants were assessed on a range of outcome measures (social media use, willingness to intervene against suicide, internet self-efficacy, confidence, and safety when communicating about suicide on social media platforms) at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and at 4-week follow-up. Results After the 6-week #chatsafe intervention, participants reported substantial improvements in their willingness to intervene against suicide online, their internet self-efficacy, and their perceived confidence and safety when communicating about suicide online. Overall, the participants reported that it was appropriate to receive the #chatsafe intervention via social media, and no iatrogenic effects were recorded. Conclusions The findings suggest that it is safe and acceptable to disseminate suicide prevention information entirely via social media among young people who have recently been exposed to a suicide or suicide attempt. Interventions such as #chatsafe could potentially mitigate the risk of distress and future suicidal behavior in young people by improving the quality and safety of online communication about suicide and, as such, can be an important component of delivering a postvention response to young people.

Can #chatsafe support parents and carers beyond Australia? A qualitative study

“…However, rather than this concern spanning all suicide-related communication, it is the quality and quantity of media content that needs to be considered [ 42 ]. For instance, helpful suicide prevention messaging on social media has been shown to increase young people’s ability to communicate safely about suicide and provide support to peers [ 29 , 30 ], highlighting the possibility of using social media to provide support to young people at risk of suicide.…”

“…Recognising young people’s widespread use and perceived benefits of digital technologies, emerging interventions have sought to capitalise on the reach and accessibility of social media to improve public health outcomes for this population (e.g., [ 29 , 30 ]). One such approach is the #chatsafe intervention, which comprises evidence-informed guidelines for young people aged 12–25 and a youth co-designed social media campaign that delivers age-appropriate suicide prevention psychoeducation to young people entirely via social media [ 30 ].…”

Artificial Intelligence for Analyzing Psychiatric Disorders in Social Media: A Quarter-Century Narrative Review of Progress and Challenges (Preprint)

“…There are some concerns regarding consent and data usage and privacy, as noted in the Ethical Aspects on the Data and Analysis of Mental Health section. Interestingly, while both young people and mental health professionals somewhat agree that social media companies should use AI to proactively detect users at risk of suicide or self-harm and signpost them helpful information and resources, they felt more strongly that AI capabilities should be used to promote helpful content such as psychoeducation [158]. In addition, there are logistical challenges to doing this, such as how individual data collected by global platforms can be harnessed by localized health care providers to support care.…”

“…In addition, there are logistical challenges to doing this, such as how individual data collected by global platforms can be harnessed by localized health care providers to support care. Despite these challenges, social media has proven a useful tool to identify relevant individuals for research, including delivering interventions to young people living with eating disorders [159] and who have been exposed to suicide [158], and using Facebook data to detect relapse in patients with schizophrenia [160].…”

The Role of Social Media as a Resource for Mental Health Care

“…For example, the #chatsafe initiative provides a safe medium for young people aged 10–24 years to communicate online about suicide. It has been found to reduce the risk of distress and future suicidal behavior among young people who attempted suicide or were in contact with people who did [ 9 ]. Another interesting example of the potential of social media is the use of short videos focused on minimizing the stigma that patients diagnosed with mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia [ 10 ].…”