Review of Suicide Prevention Apps: Tools for Safety and Support

Suicide remains one of the leading causes of death among teens and adults today. According to WHO, more than 720,000 people die annually due to suicide. The impact it has on individuals and loved ones is profound.

Therefore, several interventions have been deployed to prevent suicides, and one of them is the suicide prevention apps. Today, we'll review some suicide prevention apps that are available out there. Let's begin.

How These Apps Help Prevent Suicide

Now, you may be wondering - how do suicide-prevention apps really work? Or do you think once you download and open the app, suicidal thoughts will just disappear? Well, you're not too far from the truth.

What these apps do in reality is that they help users recognize early warning signs and provide access to quick support through a series of features, including:

Reviews of 4 Apps to Prevent Suicide

Now that you know how some of these apps work, let's look at the reviewed suicide prevention apps.

1Virtual Hope Box

Virtual Hope Box is an app for suicide prevention based on Cognitive Behavioural Principles (CBP). Its main interface is a virtual place where users can easily access photos, quotes, and recordings that motivate or comfort them during tough times.

It also offers four games and coping exercises, including controlled breathing, muscle relaxation, activity scheduling, etc. Unlike Calm Urge, Virtual Hope Box is completely free and compatible with numerous devices.

Features:

• Link to crisis hotlines and personalized emergency contact
• Access to various distracting games
• Access to a lot of coping exercises
• Prompt users to make life plans with loved ones

Evidence supported? ✔️ A trial with 118 U.S. veterans found that adding the Virtual Hope Box significantly improved coping with unpleasant emotions and thoughts.

Available on: Android, iPhone

2Stay Alive

Developed by a charity (Grassroots Suicide Prevention), Stay Alive is a popular suicide prevention app in the United Kingdom, with over 100k downloads.

It offers various advanced tools to help reduce suicide risk, such as coping exercises, lifeboxes for storing life-affirming content, reasons for living inventory, etc.

In addition to helping you through a tough moment, Stay Alive also provides resources for those who want to help someone else.

Features:

• Allow users to create safety plans and set up a lifebox
• Link to various crisis support at the touch of a button
• Offer preset breathing exercises
• Access to suicide-prevention tips and myths

Evidence-supported? ✔️ It is backed by a Unity Insights' survey where 76% of users with suicidal thoughts felt the app helped them stay safe from suicide.

Available on: Android, iPhone, desktop

3Suicide Safety Plan

Suicide Safety Plan has been around as far back as 2014. As its name implies, its main aim is to let users create a fully personalized safety plan themselves.

Since it is a completely self-help tool, users need to document their own warning signs, places for distraction, list coping strategies, and reasons to live for managing suicidal urges.

Features:

• Completely customizable safety plan
• Link to crisis hotline at the touch of a button
• Help finding local urgent care centers and emergency departments
• Offer guides to cope with suicidal thoughts (limited)

Evidence-supported? ❌

Available on: Android, iPhone

4Calm Urge

Being grounded in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Calm Urge is a self harm tracker app. It identifies suicide triggers by tracking users' feelings through daily journals and promoting emotional regulation.

It also contains a wide range of sound meditation and random calming activities to cope with the urge to self-harm. While this app gives quick access to emergency contacts, it doesn't integrate with emergency help lines.

Features:

• Journal and analytics for tracking mood
• A mix of focused and de-stress games for suicide prevention
• Presents daily uplifting messages to inspire hope

Evidence-supported? ❌

Available on: Android, iPhone

Tools for Parents to Identify Suicide Signs

While the apps above are designed to support individuals, parents may also need tools to spot potential warning signs in their children.

This is especially important today, as suicide among teenagers has become a growing concern — in the U.S., over 20% of high school students reported seriously considering suicide.

So, if you have children and want to know if they're nurturing suicidal thoughts, leverage parental control apps.

AirDroid Parental Control

AirDroid is a comprehensive parental control app. With its keyword-based alerts tool, parents can get instantly notified when their kids search, browse, or talk about suicide related content on their social media and Messages apps.

This app also offers a location tracking function. These two features work in synergy to ensure parents can intervene early when their child visits an unfamiliar or suicidal location.

MMGuardian Parental Control

MMGuardian is another parental control with suicide alerts. In addition to sending timely alerts, its "Child Safety Alerts" feature is coupled with several educational mental health resources that can help parents understand suicide coping strategies, risk, and prevention.

Just like AirDroid, this app also detects content by keywords related to concerning content. The biggest difference is that MMGuardian doesn't support setting up a custom keyword list.

Conclusion

Suicide prevention apps are real and can be effective in some cases. However, don't ever substitute a trained professional with them. Instead, use them in conjunction with the guidance you receive from qualified experts. After all, technology can offer helpful tools, but it is human connection and compassionate care combined with professional treatment that truly save lives.

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