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Facebook offers new suicide-prevention tools worldwide

An example of Facebook's new suicide prevention tools. (Facebook Safety)

The issue of suicide prevention made national headlines in Canada earlier this year, following an outbreak of attempts in the Ontario First Nation of Attawapiskat.

And in response to the prevalence of the issue in Canada and around the world, Facebook is rolling out new tools to help its users offer support to their friends who they believe may be suicidal or self-harming.

Kevin Chan, head of public policy at Facebook Canada, told Yahoo Canada Finance that with 21 million users in Canada alone, the company is in a position to help.

 “This is something that we know that friends and family members are best in a position to notice things that are perhaps slightly off about people that they care about,” he said.

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 “And so, we really thought that this is something that we can and should do to keep our community safe, and try to be proactive, and try to avert some of the more difficult and tragic things like (what happened in) Attawapiskat.”

In an announcement made earlier this week, the social media giant said it would give users around the world the option of anonymously reporting a concerning post, at any hour of day, which will be reviewed by teams in real-time.

 The teams – composed of content safety scanners  are instructed to prioritize the “most serious reports,” such as self-harm.

Chan said that in cases where there is an “imminent threat” friends will be advised to contact authorities or when the team believes the situation needs to be addressed immediately, Facebook will reach out to local law enforcement itself.

The company added it doesn’t keep track of the number of posts related to self-injury or suicide.

Facebook will also send the person who wrote the post of concern a set of options, including: reach out to a friend, contact a helpline – in Canada the service is provided by Kids Help Phone, in English, and Jeunesse Je Coute in French – or to see tips.

There currently isn’t a national suicide-prevention strategy in Canada, but Facebook said it is working with Kids Help Phone and the Canadian Mental Health Association, and as new resources are rolled out, they will integrate them.

The CMHA told Yahoo Canada Finance that it has provided Facebook with a map of provincial resources and distress lines to include in its messages.

Users who see their friends writing worrisome posts are also offered the immediate options of reaching out to them directly or reaching out to friends to for advice.

Facebook said that they have worked with researchers to develop preloaded texts to ease some of the burden of starting what could be a difficult conversation.

The company said their research has shown this has increased the “chances of completion and that people actually reach out.”

“Often times, as you can imagine, people want to engage with people for help, but they don’t know how to start that conversation and they have a hard time getting passed that initial stage,” said Chan.

Chan added that all reports are “completely anonymous,” none of the data is retained and the users have no idea who flagged their posts.

A lot of people want to remain anonymous, but they are worried and they’re not sure how to intervene, or how to get involved, and so this is a way for them to do it,” he said.

The social networking site said in its announcement that the safety mechanisms were developed in collaboration with mental health organizations and people who have “personal experience” with self-injury and suicide.

While Facebook unveiled the tools for users around the world on Tuesday, it initially launched in the U.S. with the help of suicide prevention groups Forefront, Lifeline and Save.org.

According to the New York Times, Facebook conducted a small test with suicide prevention tools in conjunction with the aforementioned groups.

When asked about the pilot project, Facebook declined to disclose the results.

The company said the tools will be offered to its more than 1.65 billion members around the world, with support in each language that Facebook is offered in, with help from local partners.

Facebook Canada said it has been working on its new tools for more than a year. A previous iteration only allowed users to report their friends based on a concerning post, and that person would be referred to the Kids Help Phone.

The new tools could offer an immediate and simple way for many Canadians to seek help. A 2015 poll by Forum Research found that 59 per cent of Canadian adults use Facebook.

Meanwhile, suicide is the ninth-highest leading cause of death across the country, according to Statistics Canada, with nearly 4,000 people dying as a result of intentional self-harm in 2012, the most recent year for which data is available.

Patrick Smith, the national CEO of the CMHA, told Yahoo Canada Finance, that Facebook’s new tools can help turn “social networks” into “true support networks,” which is vital for younger generations whose cries for help may fall through the cracks of the traditional mental health system.

Here is a way that is more specific to the online world, and specifically to a social networking site, that has a whole different reach to a whole different demographic, which we may not be getting when we’re doing our general supports,” said Smith.

Smith said CMHA does not have any statistics about expressions of self-harm and suicide online, but it likely “happens more than we think.”

Sometimes the easiest way for someone who is feeling that way to express themselves is through social media, because they can type it in and they’re not having to say it to someone,” he said.

Specifically, Smith appreciates the options of providing support resources and the scripted messages of concern, which he said indicate “your call, this here if you like it” and “I’m here to listen.”

“I think this is a much more active and palpable way of dealing with it  to equip your friends in your network to feel confident reaching out,” he said. 

Facebook’s announcement comes after the release of an in-house study in February that found more than one-third of emotions expressed with the feeling annotation widget are negative.

But it also revealed that negative feelings elicit more responses than positive, and generally received “longer, more empathetic comments."

Posts that also related to self-worth heightened those effects and were linked to an increase in private messages where friends could offer emotional support.