Weekly News Roundup September 3 – 9, 2018

Every day we scan news headlines and social media for items of interest to the field of suicide prevention. Here’s what we found last week:

Featured:

World Suicide Prevention Day 2018 – Centre for Suicide Prevention
September 10, 2018
Today is September 10, World Suicide Prevention Day. This year’s theme, as determined by the International Association for Suicide Prevention, is “Working together to prevent suicide.” Suicide prevention is everybody’s business.

A caring conversation: What suicide prevention can look like – Centre for Suicide Prevention
September 10, 2018
In this editorial article, we explore the significant impact a simple caring conversation can have on a person considering suicide.

You can help someone who is thinking about suicide – Centre for Suicide Prevention
September 10, 2018
Anyone can have thoughts of suicide and anyone can help someone at risk of suicide. This article, released with CMHA National, can teach you how to help. Disponible en français.

Celebrities appeal to media to change how suicide is reported – Guardian
September 9, 2018
Public figures like London mayor Sadiq Khan and Stephen Fry are among 130 signatories of a letter calling on media in the UK to follow the Samaritans guidelines on suicide reporting. Luciana Berger MP said, “The evidence is that responsible commentary and news reporting of suicide can help prevent these types of deaths in the future. No suicide is inevitable. We are calling on everyone involved in the creation of news and comment to help stop suicide by transforming the language and images they choose. In particular we want to see an end to the phrase ‘commit suicide’, which belongs to a bygone era and needs to fall swiftly into disuse.”

Suicide hotlines really do save lives. I know because one saved mine – Quartz
September 9, 2018
This article is a first-hand account of how crisis lines can be a life-saver for those struggling with depression, and of how the author, who had thoughts of suicide herself, reflected on crisis lines after seeing them listed in the news stories about Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade’s death. She notes, “Most of all I thought about that hotline number offered up in the wake of suicides. I thought about why, for some people, a stranger’s disembodied voice cuts through the internal din of depression in a way that the voices of their most beloved friends and family cannot. I wondered why this phone number saves people, and I marveled at how lucky I was that it once saved me.”

Bridge of Life: Suicide prevention vigil to cross High Level Bridge Monday – Edmonton Journal
September 9, 2018
The third annual Bridge of Life event is taking place today, World Suicide Prevention Day, to commemorate lives lost to suicide, support those who have lost someone, and create a safe space to talk about mental health. “It’s not just a memorial. It’s a night for us to get together in support of each other, to bring awareness to those hard topics, like suicide,” said Jennifer Hope, chairwoman of the Edmonton Mental Health Awareness Committee, the group putting on the walk.

Prediction of suicide risk based on tweets in the works at Royal Ottawa Hospital – Ottawa Citizen
September 8, 2018
Researchers at The Royal Ottawa Hospital’s Institute of Mental Health Research are developing an algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to analyze tweets and detect suicide risk. During its pilot phase, the algorithm was 87% accurate in identifying suicide risk. Today, World Suicide Prevention Day, lead researcher Dr. Zachary Kaminsky will present his findings to those working in suicide prevention and ask, “We think we are on to something. What do you want us to do with it?”

Study finds 1 in 5 college students reported thoughts of suicide – Boston Globe
September 6, 2018
A new study has found that one in five college students reported thoughts of suicide in the past year. The study surveyed 67,000 college students in more than 100 colleges in the US, and found that those in racial, sexual, and gender minorities are at a higher risk but stress, mental health diagnoses, and risk of suicide or suicidal thoughts were prevalent among all college students.
Related: When there is a mental health crisis in your dorm – New York Times

Climate change will increase deaths by suicide – Conversation
September 5, 2018
Studies have found a correlation between increased temperatures and suicide rates. Researchers aren’t sure why the two may be correlated, but Lisa Page, a researcher in psychology at King’s College London, suggested that, “While speculative, perhaps the most promising mechanism to link suicide with high temperatures is a psychological one. High temperatures have been found to lead individuals to behave in a more disinhibited, aggressive and violent manner, which might in turn result in an increased propensity for suicidal acts.”

Soldiers who attempt suicide often have no history of mental health issues – Reuters
September 5, 2018
A recent study has found that 36% of US Army soldiers who attempted suicide didn’t have a history of mental health problems. “Soldiers without a mental health diagnosis may have had mental health problems but had not reported them to their medical care teams,” said lead author Dr. Robert Ursano, director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.  “This can be because they do not think they have a problem, they are concerned about stigma associated with mental health care – which is true in both military and civilian settings – or they felt even if they reported their problems to their physicians that nothing would help.”

Report warns of ‘disturbing’ rates of child abuse, suicide and infant mortality in Canada – Globe and Mail
September 4, 2018
A new report has analyzed data relating to children’s health markers from Stats Can and the Canadian Institute of Health Information. The report recommended that all levels of government need to do more to ensure that children “benefit from the country’s overall wealth and prosperity.” One troubling finding included the fact that suicide is the second leading cause of death among children: Canada’s child suicide rate is one of the top five highest in the world.

The suicide clusters that threaten mountain towns – Outside
September 4, 2018
Durango, Colorado and La Plata County, which surrounds it, has almost three times the US national average. In 2017, 19 people died by suicide and 13 in 2016, but no one demographic was readily identified as having been more at risk. A comprehensive suicide prevention initiative is currently being developed in Colorado, the goal of which is to reduce suicide by 20% by 2024. “We’re hoping to show you can have a statewide impact on suicide rates by doing community-level work,” says Sarah Brummett, director of the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention. “Suicide is an incredibly complex issue—there are no vaccines, no seatbelts—and it’s going to take everyone moving in the same direction.”

What happens when an algorithm labels you as mentally ill? – Washington Post
September 4, 2018
This editorial, written by Adam Hofmann, internal medicine physician, explores the pros and cons of social media platforms using algorithms to label people as mentally ill. “As a physician, I see the risks and consequences of algorithmic overreach in mental health falling into two camps: there are the risks of ‘false positives,’ of labelling healthy people as being mentally ill, and the risks of ‘false negatives,’ of missing cases of mental illness that actively require our attention,” said Hofmann.