Prevent suicide

Enrique Baca-García

Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain

According to the World Health Organisation, nearly 800,000 people take their own lives each year, and many more attempt to do so. Suicides are a serious public health problem and represent the second leading cause of death among individuals aged 15 to 29. A significant percentage of those who attempt suicide without success try again during the following year.

Evidence-based interventions could prevent many of these deaths. Mobile phones now make it possible to ask people at risk of suicide how they are feeling at any given moment and in what environment they find themselves. In addition, technology enables the use of sensors embedded in the mobile phone to record the behaviour of individuals at risk.

The aim of this project is to determine the effectiveness of combining these sources of information in preventing suicide attempts and to accurately identify the profile of repeat suicide attempters. This will allow for more effective prevention strategies to be designed. To this end, a study will be conducted with people who have been treated for a suicide attempt in one of the seven hospitals participating in the project, distributed across four autonomous communities.

• Antonio Artés, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain

• Miguel Ruiz Veguilla, Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla - Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Seville, Spain

• Pilar Alejandra Sáiz Martínez, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain

• Víctor Pérez Sola, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain

Multisite Smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Intervention for suicide prevention

€999,955.00