Suicide-related Twitter Content in Response to a National Mental Health Awareness Campaign and the Association between the Campaign and Suicide Rates in Ontario

Abstract

Objective: Mental health awareness (MHA) campaigns have been shown to be successful in improving mental health literacy, decreasing stigma, and generating public discussion. However, there is a dearth of evidence regarding the effects of these campaigns on behavioral outcomes such as suicides. Therefore, the objective of this article is to characterize the association between the event and suicide in Canada’s most populous province and the content of suicide-related tweets referencing a Canadian MHA campaign (Bell Let’s Talk Day [BLTD]). Methods: Suicide counts during the week of BTLD were compared to a control window (2011 to 2016) to test for associations between the BLTD event and suicide. Suicide tweets geolocated to Ontario, posted in 2016 with the BLTD hashtag were coded for specific putatively harmful and protective content. Results: There was no associated change in suicide counts. Tweets ( n = 3,763) mainly included content related to general comments about suicide death (68%) and suicide being a problem (42.8%) with little putatively helpful content such as stories of resilience (0.6%) and messages of hope (2.2%). Conclusions: In Ontario, this national mental health media campaign was associated with a high volume of suicide-related tweets but not necessarily including content expected to diminish suicide rates. Campaigns like BLTD should strongly consider greater attention to suicide-related messaging that promotes help-seeking and resilience. This may help to further decrease stigmatization, and potentially, reduce suicide rates.

Changes in Media Reporting Quality and Suicides Following National Media Engagement on Responsible Reporting of Suicide in Canada: Changements de la Qualité des reportages dans les médias sur les suicides suite à l’engagement des médias nationaux à la déclaration responsable du suicide au Canada

“…We must emphasize that other efforts to change discourse outside the national initiative, for example, Bell Canada's Let's Talk campaign, may have played a role; although there is some evidence that such initiatives have not, as yet, improved suicide-related discourse. 67 Importantly, the degree to which each component of the national initiative, the Mindset Guidelines, and/or unrelated factors (e.g., evolving societal beliefs about suicide) may have contributed to our findings is unknown. Our results do suggest the possibility that the national initiative and Mindset may have worked synergistically in certain respects but also that some of the original Mindset recommendations might have undermined the message of the national initiative.…”

Sentinel surveillance of substance-related self-harm in Canadian emergency departments, 2011 − 19

“…Part of this increase may be surveillance artifact due to improved capture and/or increased reporting (see limitations section). A relatively recent increase in awareness of mental health issues, and a reduction of the stigma associated with mental health, through national initiatives and social media campaigns around 2011 [ 38 ] may also account for part of this increase. It is also worth noting that the time-period of this study is pre-COVID-19 pandemic period.…”