Suicide Watch: Using Artificial Intelligence and Social Media to Prevent Suicide

TW: Discussion of Mental Illness, and Suicide

 

If you are experiencing thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or https://988lifeline.org/. You are not alone and help is out there.

 

This episode we are joined by two incredible high school students, Lavik Jain and Shivansh Nikhra. They are using computers and social media to help identify individuals who may be at high risk of suicide and connect them with the help they need.

 

Their project is called SuicideWatch. Check out what they are doing at at www.projectsuicidewatch.org.

 

Lavik Jain is a high school senior always wanting to test his limits. As the cofounder of Explore. Design. Solve!, he has been helping others harness their skills in STEM toward projects (similar to SuicideWatch) bettering society. In college he intends to pursue studies in Physics and Computer Science. 

 

Shivansh Nikhra is a senior at Centennial High School in Frisco. His involvement in speech and debate has taught him about prominent social issues, which he uses technology to solve. Shivansh plans to study computer science in college.  

 

This week’s Mental Morsel: Take some time away from social media. Social media can be a great place to connect with people and a way to disconnect from the world, but sometimes we spend more time than we planned mindlessly scrolling. When I scroll too long, I begin to compare myself to what I see others posting and wonder what I am doing wrong that my life doesn’t look like that. A reminder that what you see on social media is a highlight reel of someone else’s life that you are comparing to all the parts of your everyday life. So set the phone down and enjoy this moment.

 

Check us out at www.thementalsociety.com. There you can find more resources, old episodes, blog posts and more.

Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter https://www.facebook.com/thementalsociety https://www.instagram.com/thementalsocietypodcast/ https://twitter.com/mentalsocieties