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Can smartphone-assisted therapy help prevent suicide? Researchers get $1.7M grant to find out


January 27, 2016



Every year about 1,200 people in Ottawa arrive at a hospital with self-harm, usually from an overdose of pills. About five percent of these people will die by suicide in the next five years. However, the treatment given to this high-risk group is variable. A $1.7M IMPACT Award from the Ontario SPOR Support Unit will help Dr. Simon Hatcher and his team test a smartphone-assisted problem solving therapy that has been shown to help men with substance abuse disorders. Their study will investigate whether men who present to emergency departments with self-harm will have fewer contacts with emergency departments after being given this smartphone-assisted therapy compared to usual care.
Co-investigators: Kednapa Thavorn, Daniel Corsi, Ian Colman.

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