Social media can be a safe and effective way to educate young people about suicide prevention, an Orygen study has found.
The study analysed the results of the #chatsafe suicide prevention campaign, which was co-designed by young people and delivered entirely through social media.
The campaign, which ran for 12 weeks on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Tumblr, promoted a set of evidence-based guidelines, #chatsafe: A young person’s guide for communicating safely online about suicide.
The study analysed data from 189 young people who evaluated the campaign content, whilst also exploring the acceptability, safety, and feasibility of the social media content. It also studied participants’ willingness to intervene against suicide-related social media posts after being exposed to the #chatsafe content, and assessed their safety and wellbeing when communicating on social media about suicide.
Lead researcher Dr Louise La Sala said the study showed social media can be a safe and practical tool for educating young people about suicide prevention.
Most of the study’s participants had more confidence talking about suicide on social media as a result of the #chatsafe campaign.
“What was really promising was that the young people in this study reported that they were more willing to act if they saw suicide-related content on social media. For example, if a friend posted something about suicide, they were more likely to reach out to that person directly and check in," she said.
“The #chatsafe intervention also appeared to improve aspects of online behaviour, with participants reporting being less likely to share suicide-related content themselves; more likely to monitor their posts for harmful content; and being more likely to contact someone directly if they believed they were at risk.”
Dr La Sala said there was an urgent need for a youth-friendly approach to suicide prevention, and social media presented a unique opportunity to reach a large number of young people.
“Exposure to unsafe and poorly moderated suicide-related content can be associated with an increase in young people experiencing suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Therefore, equipping young people with the skills to engage with this content in a safe way is important.
“This speaks to the need for young people to feel equipped in knowing how to manage the content they encounter and the findings from this study suggest the #chatsafe social media campaign can play a useful part in this process.”
The campaign, which ran in three states and two territories between September 2019 and January 2020, reached approximately 1.5 million young people.
The project was funded by the Australian Government, under the National Suicide Prevention Leadership and Support Program, Future Generations Global and the William Buckland Foundation.
The results of the study were published this month in a special edition of PLOS ONE about understanding and preventing suicide. It was guest edited by Associate Professor Jo Robinson, Orygen’s head of suicide prevention research.