Suicide is one of the major causes of death especially for children aged 10 to 14. According to reports, someone commits suicide every 14 minutes.
This is the reason behind the development of the app that can save those who have higher suicidal tendencies. This app currently being developed by researchers uses a computer algorithm that records conversations and analyze how people speak and the things that they say.
This app analyzes both verbal and non-verbal cues and it can determine if a person has a suicidal tendency with 93 percent accuracy. It uses a machine learning algorithm which processes the collected responses of a person and classify them into three groups: the suicidal, mentally ill, or neither.
Dr John Pestian, a researcher from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, who led the research, said: "These computational approaches provide novel opportunities to apply technological innovations in suicide care and prevention, and it surely is needed."
'When you look around health care facilities, you see tremendous support from technology, but not so much for those who care for mental illness.
'Only now are our algorithms capable of supporting those caregivers.
'This methodology easily can be extended to schools, shelters, youth clubs, juvenile justice centers, and community centers, where earlier identification may help to reduce suicide attempts and deaths.'
This algorithm is now being tested in schools in the region, according to Cincinnati Enquirer. The app is called SAM or Spreading Activation Mobile, which records counselling sessions and picks up languages used and non-verbal cues used like laughing and sighing to identify people who are at risk of suicide.
According to Dr. Pestian, this app is not necessarily going to stop suicide, but it can help raise a red flag that an intervention has to take place. Otherwise, this technology will only be useless.
