Tag: teen suicide

Facebook now exposes suicide-prevention resources to their users through an infographic flow-chart

Article

INFOGRAPHIC: Suicide Prevention Resources On Facebook – AllFacebook

My Comments

I have previously covered the issue of Facebook in relation to the difficult topic of suicide and self-harm with an article about some incidents where a Facebook user sought assistance to handle a suicide attempt across the other side of the world; as well as another drawing attention to teenagers using this service as a counselling resource to reach out to other at-risk teens.

Now Facebook have taken it upon themselves to provide resources to help users worried about a person who is at risk of self-harm or suicide. This is more so where a Facebook status update becomes something to vent one’s feelings as I have seen before many times.

Here, they have exposed these resources and what they can do by showing an infographic flow-chart (PDF) about what they can do to help the user who is worried about their friend. They are exposing this flow-chart using a series of public-service announcements that appear across the Website so everyone who is using Facebook is aware of the resource.

This is in addition to partnering with organisations like Lifeline and Samaritans as well as implementing protocols and procedures to handle these situations especially where it happens in another country. One of the actions can include Facebook drawing the affected person’s attention to their local resources as well as keeping the concerned friend “in the loop” through a special Web dashboard.

As well, they have made a “one-touch” reference list of these organisations in their online help so that anyone across the Internet can be aware of these resources.

What I see of this is that Facebook, due to the sheer number of regular users, has done the right thing to handle this situation and this could open up questions amongst Internet-based online communities about how to handle situations where a person expresses a desire to harm themselves through these communities.

 

Using Facebook to tackle teen suicide

Article

Teens meet on Facebook to talk about suicide

My Comments

I have often heard remarks about the negative influence of Facebook and other social networks on teenagers’ lives and how they use these services. But this article has highlighted how a group of teenagers have used this service to reach out to teenagers on this sensitive topic by setting up an open group which can act as a forum on this topic.

They took the fact that nearly every teenager has Facebook presence and they often vent their feelings on their Facebook Wall as I have seen before. This group effectively became a forum to raise a subject that is normally considered taboo. I had a look at the forum and there were even images and referenced to people who have lost people that were close to them in this manner.

I would like to see this group exposed not just to Australian media but to worldwide media because this isn’t just an Australian issue but a worldwide issue.

For further help on this topic, I have published a list of some of the organisations looking in to the suicide and depression issue but there will be a similar organisation operation close to you.

Australia
Lifeline 13 11 14
Suicide Call-Back Service 1300 659 467
Suicide Line 1300 651 251
Beyond Blue 1300 22 46 36
United Kingdom
Samaritans 08457 90 90 90
Ireland
Samaritans 1850 60 90 90
USA
1-800 SUICIDE (HopeLine)
– Kristin Brooks Hope Center
1-800-SUICIDE