Baltimore Sun: Nonprofit launches app to bring suicide prevention to users’ fingertips

Baltimore Sun: Nonprofit launches app to bring suicide prevention to users’ fingertips

Grassroots, Howard County’s only crisis intervention center, has launched a new suicide prevention app, joining a nationwide trend to integrate technological advances with crisis intervention, a form of counseling that relies on traditional communication like face-to-face or over-the-phone conversations.

Suicide rates in the United States have hit historic highs over the last 30 years. Between 1999 and 2014, the country’s suicide rate surged by 24 percent, according to a National Center for Health Statistics study released this year.

Titled There is Hope, the tool is the first suicide prevention app that relies on self-assessment, said Brandon Johnson, director of suicide and violence prevention at the state’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The state funded the project through a $5,000 grant.

Read the full article here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/columbia/ph-ho-cf-suicide-prevention-app-0922-20160919-story.html

Story by Fatimah Waseem
Howard County Times

There is Hope is available to download in the Apple and Google Play stores.

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