Can Tech Help Prevent Teen Suicide? (Trigger warning)

Addressing teen suicide will take both technology and live human connection.

KEY POINTS

• Teen suicide is a serious part of the teen mental health crisis.
• Technology can be part of the solution, with multiple clinical trials showing teens benefit from using apps that support their mental health.
• Adding a live human component to a digital support tool is likely to provide additional benefits.

Apps can help teens with their mental health

"Leaning in to teens’ chosen ways of communicating may help best support them. Research now has shown the promise of digital support to reach and help young people who are suffering. A 2021 randomized clinical trial showed how short skills-based videos delivered digitally helped avoid worsening mental health in students. Behavioral therapy that uses mindfulness, acceptance, and regulating emotions was delivered to students by video, and researchers concluded this brief, highly scalable intervention could extend the reach of mental health treatment. Another 2021 clinical trial that I worked on with colleagues at the University of Washington and Hopelab showed that an app designed to help teens transitioning to college feel less lonely was able to buffer against loneliness and depression in the first semester.

Live support adds additional benefit

Adding a live human component to a digital intervention is likely to provide additional benefit, especially for teens. In a study of what teens want in a digital intervention supporting mental health, focus groups with teens showed they favor mobile health coaching and prefer online peer-to-peer interactions with a professional moderator to get support. In a study through my lab at UC San Francisco in 2019, we looked at how live coaching support enhanced the effectiveness of digital intervention in teens around smoking cessation. More so than delivering automated content, engagement with a live counselor helped smokers achieve improved smoking cessation outcomes."

Read the full available article at Psychology Today

Reflection: Do you know of any mental health apps that has helped you dealing with any mental health issue in the past? Do you belive that "mental health tech" is on the rise?

#Teens #MentalHealth #Suicide