Reducing the impacts of exposure to potentially traumatic events on the mental health of public safety personnel: A rapid systematic scoping review.

Police, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians and paramedics are frequently exposed to potentially traumatic events (PTE) in their work as public safety personnel (PSP). PTE are a risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. This systematic rapid scoping review summarizes evaluation research on psychosocial interventions to reduce the negative consequences of exposure to work-related PTE on the mental health of PSP. Articles were identified using PubMed and PsycInfo. Publications from January 1, 2013, to December 1, 2020, were retained because the research published before 2013 was covered by other reviews. We identified 601 unique documents; 30 met preliminary eligibility criteria; and 18 were retained. Most studies were limited to police officers and firefighters. Participants exposed to prevention measures reported improvements of symptoms of depression, burnout, anxiety, sleep problems, and well-being. Most articles identified factors that may hinder or facilitate the use of program components. Studies on ways to support PSP recently affected by a PTE are lacking. There are little data on the efficacy of prevention programs in reducing the prevalence of mental disorders associated with PTE. More studies should focus on identifying participant characteristics and intervention components that influence program use, adherence, and efficacy. Realistic evaluations combined with participatory research could help address important knowledge gaps. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Information and Communication Technology Use in Suicide Prevention: Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in suicide prevention has progressed rapidly over the past decade. ICT plays a major role in suicide prevention, but research on best and promising practices has been slow. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to explore the existing literature on ICT use in suicide prevention to answer the following question: what are the best and most promising ICT practices for suicide prevention? METHODS: A scoping search was conducted using the following databases: PubMed, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, and IEEE Xplore. These databases were searched for articles published between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2018. The five stages of the scoping review process were as follows: identifying research questions; targeting relevant studies; selecting studies; charting data; and collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. The World Health Organization suicide prevention model was used according to the continuum of universal, selective, and indicated prevention. RESULTS: Of the 3848 studies identified, 115 (2.99%) were selected. Of these, 10 regarded the use of ICT in universal suicide prevention, 53 referred to the use of ICT in selective suicide prevention, and 52 dealt with the use of ICT in indicated suicide prevention. CONCLUSIONS: The use of ICT plays a major role in suicide prevention, and many promising programs were identified through this scoping review. However, large-scale evaluation studies are needed to further examine the effectiveness of these programs and strategies. In addition, safety and ethics protocols for ICT-based interventions are recommended.

The Darknet and suicide.

CONTEXT: The Internet contains both public content ("Surface Web"), and private content ("Deep Web") sometimes hosted on exclusive networks ("Darknets") only accessible using dedicated software such as TOR (The Onion Router). This software makes it almost impossible to identify its users. Information media have reported on suicide-related aspects of Darknets, for example when poisons that can be used to kill oneself are offered for sale (Le Garff et al., 2016) when users discuss ways to kill oneself in anonymous forums (Ferrara, 2016; Franceschi-Bicchierai, 2015) and suicides that follow bullying or "doxing" (online divulgation without consent of intimate personal information) (Bartlett, 2015). Several recent studies have analyzed the nature of suicide content on the Surface Web, but to date, there have been no systematic investigations of suicidal content available on Darknets. OBJECTIVES: The object was to document the nature and accessibility of suicide-related information available on the TOR Darknet or via the TOR software. METHODS: We replicated the methodology used by Biddle et al. (2008, 2016) in their studies of the Surface Web, using TOR on the Darknet. We identified and chose nine search engines used on the TOR Darknet: TORCH the TOR search engine, Notevil, Ahmia, Candle, Hidden Wiki, Darknet (onion.link), Duckduckgo and Grams. Two research assistants independently coded the first 30 results of searches using the keywords, "suicide" and "suicide methods". RESULTS: There were 476 "hits" in the search for "suicide" and "suicide method" using TOR, with fewer sites dedicated to suicide (4%), compared to the Surface Web (23.1%) (Biddle et al., 2016). Over half of the sites proposed by the TOR search engines (252, 52.9%) were outdated, inaccessible or not containing content pertinent to suicide or suicide methods. Several of the TOR search engines provided access to forums ("chat boards") where suicide was a topic (70, 14.8%). These were usually pro-suicide, are blocked or filtered by most of the Surface Web engines (e.g. Google). DISCUSSION: Persons concerned with suicide prevention should conduct further investigations of pro-suicide forums that are accessible using TOR and their users, comparing them with the Surface Web. New strategies to prevent suicide may need to be developed for Darknets.