Delivering Online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Interventions to Reduce Suicide Risk

Web-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) interventions can reach people who do not seek or receive face-to-face care, or who live in a region where mental health care is less available or accessible. Although the evidence base for web-based interventions is small, the worldwide reach of the web and the low costs of guided and unguided web-based self-help could enable it to support many suicidal individuals surfing the Internet looking for help. The self-help modules were developed with the help of suicidal patients in outpatient mental health care psychotherapy who commented upon subsequent versions of theory sections and exercises. The major implication is that suicidal thoughts can be reduced in frequency and intensity, and brought under more control through online self-help. Moreover, it is clinically relevant, and meaningful to sufferers, to reduce the psychological distress and burden associated with repetitive suicidal thinking.