Development Guidelines from a Study of Suicide Prevention Mobile Applications (Apps)

Abstract

Every day, Americans are inundated with advertisements and appeals to purchase the latest mobile technology in the form of smart phones, tablets, and their accompanying applications (apps). Human service organizations (HSOs) across the United States have begun to recognize that apps can provide a valuable resource for individuals and communities by addressing social issues. Additionally, forward-thinking HSOs are aware that apps are a fresh and important way of reaching a rapidly changing, tech-savvy population. But just like the marketplace at large yields a variety of apps that range from useful and engaging to poorly contrived and ineffective, HSOs' foray into app development has achieved mixed results. This report analyzes existing mobile applications available for one specific field of HSO service delivery—suicide prevention—in order to describe what is currently available and to generate beginning guidelines for the development, implementation, and evaluation of new suicide prevention apps for underserved populations. Twenty-seven apps were analyzed and recommendations for HSOs and future research are presented.