This tip sheet includes guidance for researchers working in digital health and technology tools for suicide prevention, as well as software developers and companies working in digital health for suicide prevention. These are not rules to follow, and instead are offered to center patient autonomy, choice, and transparency when offering digital tools. Suicide prevention refers to screening, assessment, risk management, and interventions.

Tools could include digital screening or assessment surveys or apps that are designed to practice coping skills or develop safety plans. Persons with a range of lived experiences—from acute to chronic suicidal despair—should be meaningfully included in the design and development of these tools, to ensure the content is ground in real world perspectives. This guidance supports how to introduce technology tools to patients, but such tools should have perspectives of people with lived experience throughout their development.