This suicide prevention and awareness app went live December 2019, and has already reported preliminary success.
The app, known as SafeUTNG, was designed to support Utah National Guard service members and families in crisis. It’s free to download from the Android and Apple app stores, providing service members and their families with a safe, confidential platform to communicate with a crisis counselor 24/7.
In a span of only two months since going live, the app has been downloaded nearly 800 times from the Apple and Google Play markets (541 downloads from Apple, 253 downloads from Google Play). From these downloads, behavioral health providers from the University Neuropsychiatric Institute received 15 tips, which resulted in 42 confidential in-app chats and 817 threads. A thread is the online equivalent of a conversation. Each tip had an average of 65 conversations.
The SafeUTNG app can be download via Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.universityofutahhealth.safeutng&hl;=en_US
or Apple App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/safeutng/id1488643677