Social media analysed to explore US veterans’ suicide risk

Led by predictive analytics firm Patterns and Predictions and the Veterans Education and Research Association of Northern New England – with assistance from Facebook – the project is deigned to help mental health professionals detect and monitor communications and behavioural patterns that could predict suicide risk.

The Durkheim Project involves a voluntary opt-in database of participants’ social media and mobile phone data that automatically uploads relevant content onto an integrated database.

The data is continuously updated and analysed by AI systems and Durkheim’s predictive analytics applications will then provide real-time monitoring of text content and behavioural patterns statistically correlated with tendencies for harmful behaviours such as suicide.

Director of the Durkheim project Chris Poulin said: “The study we’ve begun with our research partners will build a rich knowledge base that eventually could enable timely interventions by mental health professionals.”