Socio-health with personal mental health records: Suicidal-tendency observation system on Facebook for Taiwanese adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Beginning in 2009 the second-leading cause of death for Taiwanese aged 15 to 24 has been suicide, accounting for 12.4% of deaths that year in this group and rising in the years since. The Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center (TSPC) provides a modest mental survey (MMS), also called the “feeling thermometer”, for evaluating individual psychological condition. The MMS has determined suicidal tendency with at least 85% precision. It has been observed that the most effective method for getting youth to take the MMS is to include it casually in various popular activities. In collaboration with the TSPC, the research team developed a suicidal-tendency observation system on some popular social web sites such as Facebook. Taiwan's youth can simply participate in the MMS, and the results, with required personal information, are stored in the personal mental health records in the Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) standard international format. The service went online at the end of 2010. The TSPC can initiate contact with members of the high-risk group immediately via the system's alerts. In addition, youth can be made self-aware through the MMS and so visit mental health physicians to obtain effective guidance.