This seminar will present findings from a randomised trial of a smartphone app designed to help young people manage suicidal thoughts.
Young people aged 15 to 24 years have repeatedly been identified as a group requiring specific attention in suicide prevention efforts, as one of the groups least likely to seek help for suicidal crises from face-to-face mental health services. Technology-enabled solutions, including smartphone interventions, which can deliver high-fidelity therapeutic support directly into individuals hands have potential to overcome many of the structural and attitudinal barriers to receiving care among young people.
The seminar will provide a background to the opportunities for digital interventions in youth and provide a taste of the efficacy and acceptability findings from a recently completed randomised controlled trial of a smartphone intervention (LifeBuoy) designed to help young people (aged 18 – 25 years) self-manage suicidal ideation. Some of the challenges and successes in carrying out the trial and next steps will be discussed.
About the speaker
Dr Michelle Tye is a Senior Research Fellow at the Black Dog Institute and a NHMRC Early Career Fellowship recipient (2018–2021). She leads a program of public health research focused on the development and implementation of complex interventions for suicide prevention, to ensure that effective interventions are delivered in the right settings, at scale, and early enough to prevent suicidal crises. Since 2016 she has provided leadership for the LifeSpan suicide prevention trial, which as Australia’s first place-based multilevel intervention has gone on to influence national investment in suicide prevention. In addition, she leads a number of projects specifically related to youth suicide prevention, across digital and school-based settings, to prevent suicidal behaviour from childhood to young adulthood. Prior to starting at the Black Dog Institute in 2015 she was employed at NDARC as a senior research officer and PhD candidate, examining the association between illicit drug addiction and violence.