Facebook Launches New Suicide Prevention Efforts: It is undeniable how Facebook plays a big role in the modern life of almost everyone nowadays. Some people at most were able to establish connectivity, develop understanding of the world, gain digital peer supports and discover themselves through interaction in this platform.
And now, in an effort to make the platform more beneficial to its users, Facebook announced on Thursday its initiative in strengthening suicide prevention efforts.
This week, Facebook will start launching a new tool that provide more resources, advice and support to people who may be struggling with suicidal thoughts and their concerned friends and family members.
In the next few weeks, a new option will be provided that will let a concerned user to ‘Report Post’ once he saw a post of a friend that inflicts direct threat of suicide or self-harm. People from Facebook will then review the report and when that report friend ‘log in’ the next time he will then be offere options of help.
Such options that will be include are a choice to enlist help from a friend, or they can also opt to be put in contact with a suicide helpline or be provided with tips and advice on how they can work through those feelings. All of the resources were create in conjunction with Facebook’s clinical and academic partners.
New resources and support will also be provided to the person who flagged the troubling post, including options for them to call or message their distressed friend letting them know they care, or reaching out to another friend or a trained professional at a suicide hotline for support.
Facebook is working with mental health organizations like Forefront, Now Matters Now, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Save.org and others on these updates, in addition to consulting with people who had lived experience with self-injury or suicide. These teams will be working 24/7 to review any report that comes in. Most serious reports like self-injury will be prioritize. and help and resources will be sent to those in distress.
The updates will firstly roll out to everyone in the U.S over the next couple of months, and improvements of the tools will be done for the other parts of the world as well.
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