At the International Conference on the Use of the Internet in Mental Health in Montreal earlier this month, I discussed how far we’ve come in 15 years of mental health online. But for all my discussion about social networking websites like PatientsLikeMe.com and Twitter, one of the slides sticks with me.
It’s the slide on “Suicide… Read this first,” a single, static webpage that’s been online since 1995 and written by Martha Ainsworth. Its purpose is singular yet deceptively simple — help people understand their thoughts and feelings about wanting to commit suicide, and hope they take enough away from it to make the choice to live another day. It has been read by nearly 8 million people during that time.
Yes, that’s right — 8 million people have read a single page about suicide. To put that into some perspective, just last November (2008), SAMHSA announced it had answered the 1 millionth phone call to its The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network since the hotline was launched on Jan. 1, 2005.
When Psych Central started hosting the service a few years ago, we added a one-question survey at the end of the page to gauge how “effective” the page was in helping people with their suicidal thoughts. It’s one thing to note how many people have read a page, but it’s another to say whether it’s an effective intervention that actually prevents suicide.
Can a single, very unsexy Web 1.0 static web page be effective in helping people change their minds about suicide?
- 29% - Yes, this helped me
- 24% - No, this did not help me
- 31% - Still not sure
- 14% - N/A
So for 29 percent of the people, a single web page has changed their mind about suicide. We don’t, however, know how long-lasting the intervention is (it could be that 2 days later, a person changes their mind back).
For 24 percent of people who’ve taken the survey, the page has not helped. And 31 percent of people are still not sure which way they’re going to go. That’s 55 percent of visitors to the page who either are still thinking of committing suicide, or are not sure if they’re going to, so a lot more work still needs to be done.
However, extrapolating the numbers out, that one web page has potentially helped 2,320,000 people choose not to commit suicide. That’s more than double the number of suicides prevented by the vast resources of the U.S. federal government.
All by one person and one page.
So I’m all for the Web 2.0 / Health 2.0 / Twitterverse / Facebook networks and websites helping people. But in terms of mass (as in “population wide”) mental health prevention, you can’t beat something as simple as a well-written webpage.
People sometimes ask me “Why do you do this?” This is why.
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Links to This Article
Saving Lives, One Page at a Time | World of Psychology (5/24/2009)
From Psych Central's World of Psychology:
Unsuicidal Thoughts | World of Psychology (9/10/2009)
9 Comments to
“Saving Lives, One Page at a Time”
I found that page so helpful that I added it to my school library site. I’ve probably visited it 10 times myself.
You raise a good point. You can have all the latest Web gadgetry, but it’s the message that ultimately counts.
I remember seeing that page a few years ago. Thanks for the reminder. Sometimes something small can make all the difference. In the middle of a pretty bad depressive episode recently that was leading me to serious thoughts of suicide I came across a blog post where someone shared the poem Wait by Galway Kinnell (http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Galway-Kinnell/7768). It made me wait. I think there is tremendous value in the Internet and social media for mental health issues.
I’m so glad it’s helped you Jude and Robin. Your lives are a testament to the power of a simple message!
this is amazing! am going to read it now to see why is it that effective, thanks for sharing it
I’ve been sharing that metanoia.org page with people since 2003, when I first started being active in web communities, and I’ve also shared it at in-person support groups. It’s one of the most compelling messages I’ve seen when it comes to talking to someone who may have suicidal thoughts.
I didn’t know it is now being hosted by psychcentral till now. Way to go!
I also share http://crazymeds.us (Crazy Meds) with people, that’s another example of peer-generated content that has helped a lot of people.
You do have a good point about “push” webpages which just provide good content and networking pages such as blogs, message boards, Facebook etc. It’s similar to radio and television (NPR, PBS programs eg.). They will always play a valuable role in broadcasting information.
I don’t think your calculation and statistics are quite accurate, since a lot of people visit the page simply through links and there’s no way of knowing if someone went there while suicidal. But even one life saved is a giant success story in itself.
It’s good content combined with good community sites that make the outreach efforts online successful. Very few people would know about metanoia.org page (unfortunately) unless it was linked to from many sites.
I also want to add that there are bad webpages and bad community sites that hurt the cause as well.
I have been to that site several times in my hour of need… it’s one of the first things that pops up when you google suicide. I’m not even sure if the content really struck a chord with me, but I do know I was looking for webpages that would tell me how to overdose effectively. And instead, if you try to find those things, it’s harder than you think (especially when you’re not thinking clearly in the first place) because of the positive messages out there, like that page. I think I only clicked on it because with its striking coloring, it looked like it might have the information I was looking for. It was a great way to “waste” my time that night and frustrate my search efforts.
The other online resource I found super helpful was the samaritans.
A link to that page is on the Twitter @unsuicide profile, and one person did tell me it prevented him from killing himself.
I’ve always thought it was a fantastic, and so are you for continuing to host it.
I AM DISABLED AND WAS IN A LONG TERM ABUSIVE REALTIONSHIP AND I USED THE SITE SEVERAL TIMES. I ONLY WISHED IT HAD A PERSON ON IT TO CHAT WITH, BUT IT DID HELP.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 24 May 2009
