Howard Rosen and principle investigagor, Dr. Bill Harms will join #SPSM 1/25/15, discussing LifeWIRE, their version of a technology tool for preventing suicide by keeping people at risk of suicide connected with their providers, safety plan, and internal motivations for living and getting well. Join us at 9pm CST to discuss current innovations and future applications of technology to help folks with intense emotional pain.

Watch them chat LIVE here:

The Tweets for this chat will be archived on Storify.

I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times. I’ve said it torch-bearing mobs, and I’ve preached to the choir. Technology and communication devices are the next big “wave” of innovation and change in mental health, and especially suicide prevention. It allows us to collect data, communicate, and intervene with a frequency, convenience, and specificity that was not possible five or ten years ago.

And yet, largely, the biggest opportunities and innovations are not happening from within our field. #SPSM is a community that brings diverse stakeholders in suicide prevention together to spread expertise and grow innovation. To this end, this week we’ll be discussing LifeWIRE in order to learn what is available and possible for improving options available for people at risk of suicide.

Chat with Rosen and Harms to discuss how these innovations enhance and extend on models for helping people with intense, painful mood. Specifically, we will discuss using technology to overcome challenges in keeping someone connected with their support system right at the time when their mental health symptoms encourage withdrawal. Sever emotional pain and depression can impair one’s motivation and energy to attend appointments, return calls, and reach out for support. Traditional “luddite” treatment models often struggle with effective interventions at this critical moment in care. Innovations with designs like LifeWIRE have promising data, but current are under used due to lack of awareness in our field and barriers to integration in our current health care system. Let’s chat about it!

Howard Rosen, MBA, D.Phil-c is CEO/Founder ofLifeWIRE® Corp. Howard developed the LifeWIRE patent pending population management communication platform to provide personalized, responsive interactions between parties such as health care providers and patients. A Schulich MBA with over two decades of experience in media and entertainment, Howard had a unique perspective from which to approach the issue of treatment adherence and patient engagement from which LifeWIRE evolved.

Howard is an mHealth thought leader having been named one of the top 100 Innovators of the Next Century (Rockefeller Foundation) and one of the Top 30 mHealth Innovators of by the mHealth Alliance (United Nations Foundation). Howard has written policy for the sector on behalf of the Province of Ontario, regularly represents the Government of Canada on the subject in international symposiums, is an industry reviewer for the U.S. department of Health and Human Services, has addressed the Congressional subcommittee’s on the subject and is a member of the working task force for mHIMSS as well as one of their conference speakers.

In addition, Howard speaks regularly at graduate schools at leading Universities and is presently a doctoral candidate at Oxford in communications and engagement.