“A social media platform designed for America’s military community is now equipped with a custom machine learning model that insiders say can rapidly review public posts and pinpoint those that show signs and risks of potential self-harm.”
“With support from the Veterans Affairs Department and Harvard University’s Nock Lab, Amazon Web Services linked up with the existing RallyPoint military social media platform to target the production of a technological solution that can speedily surface sensitive public posts and boost online suicide intervention.”
“’Historically, the heavy lifting of mental health support on RallyPoint has been shouldered by RallyPoint members stepping up to help each other when they come across people sharing their challenges on our site,’ RallyPoint CEO Dave Gowel recently told Nextgov. ‘Now, through our work with the VA, AWS and mental health experts from Harvard, we are more proactive in reinforcing our members’ good work by offering helpful resources when we are alerted about public posts showing signs of risk.’”
“Launched in 2012, RallyPoint enables nearly 2 million service members, veterans, and their families to connect, share stories and information, ask questions and ultimately chat on topics that accompany military and veteran life…” Read the full article here.
Source: Algorithms Help Spot Possible Suicidal Intent Among Veterans’ Social Posts – By Brandi Vincent, August 28, 2020. Nextgov.
