SuiSense: An Innovative Approach To Suicide Prevention

Using NLP to distinguish suicidal messages and provide personalized support

Photo from Alvernia University

Authored by: Ayaan Haque, Adithya Peruvemba, Ishaan Bhandari, and Viraaj Reddi, Four rising juniors at Saratoga High.

“I’m not good enough, I’m worthless.” Alexandra wrote. “There was just so much joy in everything she did, and it doesn’t match what was in the journal” Alysia said about the two-hundred pages of self-loathing and despair, written in Alexandra’s own hand. “You are broken. You are a burden. ‘You are lazy. You are a failure” (Valji, CBS 2019)

This is a look into the mind of Alexandra Valores, a girl who lost her life to the saddeningly familiar occurrence of suicide. On the surface, Alexandra was a bright and engaged high school student whom no one expected to be hurting on the inside. But despite her bubbly demeanor, her true feelings were far darker and were only revealed in her diary.

“Of course. How do I [Alexandra’s Teacher] go forward and have kids sit right in front of me, and I don’t have a clue what’s going on in their personal lives, but still try and figure out if something is going on?”

While reading about Alexandra’s story, this message resonated with us. We realized that there are millions of people who struggle from loneliness and depression, and there is little to no way for us to tell. While Facebook and other companies have developed bots to detect suicidal posts and provide resources, they are ineffective, given that suicide prevention requires personalized attention and interaction rather than generic responses. Instead of speaking directly to the suicidal person, we focus on alerting and involving their friends and family, who can help them much more effectively. We needed a new, innovative way to recognize those whose mental states are disintegrating, and SuiSense was our attempt at doing so.

A horrifying excerpt from Alexandra’s Diary (Valji, CBS)

Overview

SuiSense is a unique progressive web application that allows concerned family and friends to determine whether their struggling loved one is on the path…