Twitter is a form of social media originally developed to help people view the “real time” conversations among their friends, or on an identified topic (called a #hashtag). Suicide Prevention Social Media chat uses the #SPSM hashtag to tag and filter our chat content.

Tonight #SPSM guest experts @AnneMarieBatten and @GraffitiBMXCops from Real Time Crisis will be chatting with us at 9pm CST. Real Time Crisis is the brain child of a Toronto Street Nurse, Ms. Anne Marie Batten, and Scott Mills in collaboration with local law enforcement. This organization is using Twitter to prevent specific suicides, in “real time.” You can visit (and like) their Facebook page here: Or read more about how they work here:

Or watch a video about it here:

The Tweets for this chat will be archived on Storify.

Ms. Batten writes about herself, “I believe in supporting vulnerable communities by reducing barriers and bridging gaps within our current health care and social service systems. With seventeen years experience in crisis nursing, I am currently leading a multidisciplinary team who are collaborating to save and improve lives using social media tools.My expertise in triage, suicide risk assessment, crisis intervention and emergency management has lead to an expansion of my nursing role. Incorporating the use of social media has helped to increase the reach of my practice and has resulted in collaborations with community partners allowing seamless service for those most at risk.”