Artificial Intelligence and the future of Suicide Prevention.

My name is Joshua Donaldson and I am a suicide survivor.

Imagine being able to reach the specific groups of Instagram (or Facebook) users you want to connect with, engage them, and instead of converting them into customers, you save their life.

Well, not only is that possible, that is exactly what I am doing right now. I have developed a unique yet simple strategy using algorithms and Artificial Intelligence to find those in need of support that are not looking for it. Giving me an upper hand on suicide prevention methods for 2021 and beyond.

Let me explain how and why.

On Sunday, January 6th, 2019 I violently attempted to end my life. The police on the scene, the EMTs that drove me to the hospital, and the doctors on my arrival all said the same exact thing. How are you alive and why are you still here?

After much healing (a year in a treatment center) and even more research into the state of mental health and specifically suicide prevention I decided to pursue suicide prevention for the rest of my life.

On January 14th, 2020 I launched my own suicide prevention nonprofit org called ‘When The Music Stops”. In 74 days it will be our two-year anniversary. What a ride it has been wow. But that is not why I am writing this right now.

I am writing this right now because I spent the last three days doing face-to-face suicide prevention work at the Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco. Over the course of the weekend, I shared laughs, smiles, hugs, and tears with complete strangers. A few questions have come up repeatedly and I finally decided to answer them right now.

What is your program?

What is your strategy?

Where does the money go?

These are all very important questions. The struggle I am going through is the criticism of the majority around me not understanding what I am doing and how I am approaching suicide prevention. Unfortunately, they are often comparing what I am doing with what has been done before and how it has been done.

Before we can look to the future we need to first understand the past.

In 1958, the first suicide prevention center in the United States opened in Los Angeles, California, with funding from the U.S. Public Health Service. In 1966, the Center for Studies of Suicide Prevention (later the Suicide Research Unit) was established at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This was followed by the creation of national nonprofit organizations dedicated to the cause of suicide prevention.

In 1970, NIMH convened a task force in Phoenix, Arizona, to discuss the status of suicide prevention in the United States. NIMH presented the findings in the 1973 report Suicide Prevention in the 70s, which also identified future directions and priorities. In 1983, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established a violence prevention unit that brought public attention to a disturbing increase in youth suicide rates. In response, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) established a Task Force on Youth Suicide, which reviewed the existing evidence and issued recommendations in 1989.

Suicide became a central issue in the United States in the mid-1990s, when survivors of suicide loss saw the need to mobilize attention and the political will to prevent suicide in the nation. Using the United Nations guidelines for the creation and implementation of national strategies, these grassroots groups launched a citizen-initiated campaign to encourage the development of a national strategy in the United States. These efforts resulted in two Congressional Resolutions — S. Res. 84 and H. Res. 212 of the 105th Congress — recognizing suicide as a national problem and suicide prevention as a national priority.

As recommended in the U.N. guidelines, these groups set out to establish a public and private partnership that would be responsible for promoting suicide prevention in the United States. This public-private partnership jointly sponsored a national consensus conference on suicide prevention in Reno, Nevada in October 1998, which developed a list of 81 recommendations.

The Reno conference is viewed as the founding event of the modern suicide prevention movement.

On July 28, 1999, Tipper Gore and Surgeon General David Satcher hosted a press conference at which the Surgeon General unveiled a blueprint to prevent suicide in the United States. The Surgeon General’s ‘Call to Action to Prevent Suicide’, emphasized suicide as a serious public health problem requiring attention and action.

Using the AIM approach — Awareness, Intervention, and Methodology — derived from the collaborative deliberations of the 1st National Suicide Prevention Conference (Reno, Nevada) participants. As a framework for suicide prevention, AIM includes 15 key recommendations that were consistent with a public health approach to suicide prevention, along with goal statements and broad objectives from evidence-based findings that were presented at the Reno conference.

Recent milestones in the history of suicide prevention in the United States include the formation of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, in 2010, and the revision of the National Strategy in 2012.

While these are all wonderful strategies and plans that I am sure have saved countless lives. None of this work reached me nor is it reaching the majority of my peers, millennials, or generation z. Point blank the suicide field has changed with technology unfortunately fueling feelings of isolation and loneliness.

In August of 2020 in a desperate move to reach those struggling during the pandemic and under quarantine, I had an epiphany. I asked myself what if I take a positive message and run it as an ad on Instagram? So I clicked the “boost post” button and I started. The first thing I needed to do was define my target audience. Those struggling and suicidal. But how was I going to define them and find them?

In late 2015, Instagram opened up Instagram ads. Using the Facebook advertising system, marketers can now reach any specific group of Instagram’s 600+ million users. And with 500 million people using Instagram every day (daily active users), Instagram ads have become the go-to avenue for brands looking to increase engagement and profits.

How can I target someone that is suicidal? Well, that is where Artificial Intelligence comes in.

Artificial Intelligence is a system that gets better through learning. A system of knowledge that is extremely good at taking data sets and predicting outcomes. AI is very good at looking at and finding patterns that humans can’t see. Patterns of correlation that humans can’t see. Computers can find the needle in a haystack.

We are nearing the end of 2021, and computers and artificial intelligence have become extremely accurate at predicting what will happen next.

In the last few years at MIT a group of synthetic biologists and computer scientists (did a very complicated trick) involving searching through 100 million compounds and figuring out which compounds would create a reaction for antibiotic use. Using this technique they came up with a new drug that could not have been foreseen, called Helicon, and it appears to be the next broad use antibiotic. We have not had a new antibiotic in roughly 40 years.

I have found a new way to find those that are suicidal or struggling before they hurt themselves.

Traditionally suicide prevention relies on humans picking up signals (verbal, visual, etc) from someone struggling or in pain. This is extremely limited and as I know those of us that are suicidal can be very cunning and convincing that everything is fine or that we are happy (when we are the opposite). The good news is humans can’t hide their patterns from Artificial Intelligence.

We don’t know what the AI knows. We have to use them to find those that are suicidal and in need of support before they act.

So I took a leap… I assumed that Instagram/Facebook’s artificial intelligence-supported ad system would most likely have a much better way of finding those I am seeking rather than me looking for old fashion signals in someone suicidal right in front of me. Turns out I was right.

Now in order to earn the trust of anyone struggling I would have to do the unthinkable in marketing or advertising.

In 2019 and 2020 I spent the better part of 17 months in Florida speaking (and listening) in treatment centers, detoxes, and hospitals. When volunteering or being of service there is no exchange of goods. You’re not paid. You’re not given anything. Based on this method you often gain the trust of those that are in the treatment centers, detoxes, or hospitals. They know “you aren’t getting anything out of being there” and they will most often open up or at least listen to what you have to say.

So in my new digital strategy for suicide prevention, I would need to remove ‘the call to action’. Yup. I did that. I did not sell anything, ask for money, ask for an email, or even ask for a follow. I literally only paid to show people something positive that they might not have been consciously looking for. My board of directors thought I was crazy. I’m sure they still do but I saw it clear as day.

So in August 2020, I started my new suicide prevention tactic. The more positive “ads” I ran the greater the impact. The messages and the comments were endless. It worked and our community grew from 1,800 followers in July 2020 to 36,000 today. Now, remember we aren’t asking for people to follow us in our ads. They are doing so because we are speaking to them.

Most recently with the constant criticisms of people around me trying to understand and figure out how and what I am doing I became extremely hesitant to tell anyone. We are living in a post-Cambridge Analytica / Social Dilemma world and the last thing I want is someone at FB (or Meta) questioning the ethics of my using their advertising tool to target those in need (suicidal) and shut it down. (Weirder things have happened)

We have countless testimonials, comments, direct messages, and emails, from our growing community, over and over asking “how did you know?” or stating “I don’t understand how you could have possibly known”. Thanking us in droves for reaching them. Not only am I not exaggerating I am downplaying the impact. I am seeing the results first hand every single day. Currently, I personally respond to each and every message (no that won’t be possible at scale but with funding, we can hire a team or train volunteers).

I am only limited by my funding. The potential to save more lives is unlimited.

If you or anyone you know would like to fund or donate to this new way of suicide prevention using technology and Artificial Intelligence to save lives please contact me joshua@whenthemusicstops.org or donate on Venmo at @whenthemusicstops

We are a registered charity and 501(c)(3) so of course, every donation is tax-deductible.

Thank you for taking the time to read my vision for the future of suicide prevention and a positive use case for Artificial Intelligence.

Joshua C. Donaldson