NowMattersNow

Skills For Survival

WARNING: This newsletter contains images and discussion related to suicide. If your emotions are triggered by this content please call 988, the National Suicide Prevention hotline, or other crisis intervention resource for support.

Ursula Whiteside and NowMattersNow

Dr. Ursula Whiteside is the developer of the suicide prevention website, NowMattersNow, an intervention that has proven to be an effective deterrent for people seriously considering suicide.

NowMattersNow offers skills and strategies to provide immediate and actionable support for people so emotionally overwhelmed that they have concluded their only hope for escaping the pain they feel is by ending their own life.

I recently interviewed Dr. Whiteside to learn about the origins of NowMattersNow and how it provides people in desperate emotional turmoil with life saving support.

But before we get to that interview, here is some background information about suicide that provides a richer context to our conversation.

Suicide Rates Are On The Rise

It is estimated that, on average, 121 people commit suicide per day in the United States. And that number is growing. In fact, the rising suicide rate in the United States is nothing short of alarming. 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) calculated the rate of suicide in the U.S. increased by 30% between 2000 and 2020.  That’s more than 800,000 deaths. 

And those numbers continue to rise. In their most recent report, the CDC estimated that in 2022, 49,500 people died by suicide - the highest annual rate ever recorded. 

Time Is Of The Essence

Researchers at the Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health published a report - Duration of Suicidal Crises - that documented that the time between a person deciding to commit suicide and the actual attempt is very brief.

One of the studies referenced in that report (Simon, Swann, et al) found that 1 in 4 (24%) suicide attempters receiving treatment in a hospital disclosed that “less than 5 minutes passed between the time they decided to commit suicide and when they actually attempted suicide”

Another study referenced in the report (Deisenhammer EA, Ing CM, Strauss R, et al.) found that 3 out of 4 (74.4%) of suicide attempters interviewed “acted within a timeframe of 10 min or less after their decision to die”.

What these and other studies suggest is that for many people experiencing overwhelming emotional turmoil there is a brief, intense, “white hot” moment- an emotional fire - that ignites their self-destructive behaviors.

This raises a critical question: what interventions are available, accessible and effective for people at such a critical moment?

NIMH Leans In

The National Institute of Mental Health has made suicide prevention a priority, promoting large-scale research efforts to improve screening, risk assessment, and intervention. As a result, evidence-based strategies are now beginning to be implemented in health care settings across the country as a core component of reducing suicides.

One NIMH suicide prevention priorities, is “continuing to identify and test the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of treatment protocols for rapid-acting interventions.”

“No one should die by suicide,” said NIMH Director Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D. “We can’t afford to wait—which is why NIMH is investing in research to identify practical, hands-on tools and approaches that can help us prevent suicide now.”

Because of the narrow window of time between the decision to commit suicide and undertaking the act itself, providers need access to immediate suicide-specific resources that can be used as an effective brief intervention for a suicidal patient.

NowMattersNow, an evidence-based suicide prevention program that is supported in part by NIMH funding as well as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), is designed to meet that challenge.

NowMattersNow

NowMattersNow is a free online video-based support site developed by Dr. Ursula Whiteside, a licensed clinical psychologist and certified Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) provider who studied and trained with DBT creator Dr. Marsha Linehan at the University of Washington. In this interview Dr. Whiteside shares the origin story of NowMattersNow and how its’ designed to provide immediate and accessible help for people contemplating suicide.

It is notable that NIMH endorses DBT as an effective intervention strategy for reducing the risk of suicide.

You can learn more about the effectiveness of the NowMattersNow intervention in this study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research: Development and Evaluation of a Web-Based Resource for Suicidal Thoughts: NowMattersNow.org, 

You can also help to spread awareness about suicide prevention by sharing this post.