STAT (3/25, Robbins) reports that digital health apps are “being used as suicide crisis hotlines.” Several executives at digital health startups “are scrambling to figure out how best to respond and when to call the police – questions that even suicide prevention experts don’t have good answers to.” Harvard psychologist Matthew Nock advises for digital health companies to “conduct research and evaluate their own practices to gather data on what works and what doesn’t, at different levels of suicide risk. Just as a decision not to respond carries risk, so too does a decision to respond too aggressively. Calling an ambulance for patients who are not at immediate risk could backfire, if it makes them hesitate to seek help in the future.”
Related Links:
— “As patients tell apps they’re feeling suicidal, digital health startups scramble to respond, “Rebecca Robbins, STAT, March 25, 2019