Facebook adds new feature for suicide prevention

On 25 February 2015, Facebook began rolling out a feature update that would aid suicide prevention. The effort was announced at the fifth annual Compassion Research Day at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The news first broke on the University of Washington website. The tool will allow users to flag concerning content on Facebook and notify it easily. Every now and then users see ‘I cannot take it anymore’, ‘Everything is just too much’ status updates and do not know what to do about it, but now if you spot amongst your friends a status update that is worrying you then you can easily flag it and Facebook will intervene.

This feature is not new on Facebook and has been available since 2011, the big difference now is that users do not have to upload the link of the post or screenshot to the company’s suicide prevention page.

The process is simple, and requires not much admin from a user. When a Facebook friend posts something that in your opinion indicates they are thinking of harming themselves, you can click on an arrow on the post to report it. The reporting activates a series of responses from Facebook. The person who flags a post as suicidal will see a screen with links that enable them to message the potentially suicidal person, contact another Facebook friend for support or connect with a trained professional at a suicide helpline for guidance.

“One of the biggest things that we believe prevents suicide is connectedness to families, churches, communities and here, with Facebook, we have this huge potential to connect people,” said Jennifer Stuber, faculty director at Forefront.

After the report, Facebook will then review the reported post. If the poster is deemed to be in distress, screens will be launched automatically when that person next logs onto Facebook, with suggestions for getting help. The screens link to a number of positive options, including videos from Now Matters Now, an online program that uses real-life accounts of people who have struggled with suicidal thoughts to provide research-based coping strategies.

Facebook is already a tapestry of our emotions, thoughts and movements. At any time our friends know if we are having a good time out at a party, bored at home, watching a movie, feeling down, down to the benign, ‘checking in bed’.

According to a paper published by Wits University, being suicidal is described as follows:

“Suicidal thoughts can range from thoughts of being ‘better off dead’ to actively thinking about and planning how one might kill oneself. People who feel this way are characteristically feeling unable to find another means of coping with their life situation and are thus expressing a desperate need to bring an end to their difficulties”.

To develop the tool, Facebook has partnered with mental health organisations Forefront, Now Matters Now, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Save.org.

“One of the first things these organizations discussed with us was how much connecting with people who care can help those in distress,” Facebook product manager Rob Boyle and community operations safety specialist Nicole Staubli said in a Facebook post. “We have teams working around the world, 24/7, who review any report that comes in. They prioritise the most serious reports, like self-injury, and send help and resources to those in distress.”

According to the first report global report on suicide prevention by the World Health Organisation, more than 800 000 people die by suicide every year. Around one person every 40 seconds. Some 75% of suicides occur in low and middle-income countries. Worth noting is that suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29 year-olds globally, an age group that is one of Facebook core users.

With more than 1.39 billion users, who constantly document their feelings on the platform, Facebook is rightly positioned to be a witness to signs of suicide.

With some studies suggesting that around 70 % of people who committed suicide showed warning signs, this feature can be useful if those signs are shown on Facebook which is likely as people now share all their feelings on the platform.