Every day in England and Wales on average fifteen people die by suicide*.
*Source Samaritans
These are not just numbers; they represent real people, loved ones, and members of our community. Despite decades of research and countless initiatives, suicide rates remain stubbornly high. The reasons? One reason is that our current methods of assessing suicide risk are fundamentally flawed. This is the factor that we want to focus on.
Akumen is on a mission to change that. By harnessing the power of technology and human expertise, we aim to deliver an innovative approach to suicide risk assessment that can help to identify those at risk and provide life-saving interventions.
Our solution is rooted in the belief that every individual's story is unique. We use advanced technology to analyse language patterns, emotions, and other subtle cues within a person's narrative. This data, combined with the expertise of human therapists, creates a comprehensive and nuanced picture of their mental state. Unlike traditional methods that rely on simple questionnaires, our approach captures the complexity of human experience.
Why suicide prevention, why now?
Paul Howarth, the Founder of Akumen, comes from a farming and agriculture background, an industry with high suicide rates. Paul has personal connections with the families of fourteen individuals who died by suicide in the local community. He recounted how he witnessed the trauma and isolation that his fellow farmers endured during the foot and mouth outbreak in the early 2000s. This disease had a devastating impact on the farming sector, leading to significant losses and hardships. Farmers had to give up their way of life and isolate on their farms to prevent the spread of the disease, which tragically resulted in severe mental health challenges and, in some cases, suicide. Just recently, Paul met with a farming friend who had lost yet another colleague to suicide.
Paul has gone through phases of poor mental health due to two significant accidents in his twenties. These incidents forced him to transition from a physically demanding outdoor job to a mentally challenging office role, prompting a period of self-reinvention. Throughout this time, he grappled with ongoing physical and mental health issues, including instances of self-harm which he was not initially aware of but can now identify and acknowledge.
This lived experience for Paul resulted in the birth of Akumen. Our aim is ‘to make a change and make a difference.’ We enjoy tackling big societal problems, and our innovation is, we believe, the key to unlocking some of the missing understanding in this area.
The problem
The problem as it stands is that suicide risk assessments are woefully inaccurate. Type this into a search engine and there is research which shows this.
The risk of suicide is typically measured using closed quantitative Likert questions. These questions have not changed much in 40 years.
The narrative, the depth of emotions, the complexity is lost, the opportunity is missed. It is an insult to anyone reaching out for help at support in a time of crisis.
We know that it does not work, the statistics around this tell us that. Despite the fact that we have so many great charities doing work in this space and mental health apps being developed continuously the statistics show that the challenge still exists. A change is needed.
The Role of Technology in Suicide Prevention
If you go to see a therapist the therapist will ask open questions to illicit sharing, they will not use only scale and closed questions. The patient story contains the learning and the insights.
We need to change the questions that are presented to assess risk, and we need to change the way that they are asked. Once we have the story, we can dig into the narrative to find the links. Our solution allows us to:
Access the power of emotion analytics and natural language processing.
Analyse data at volume and at speed.
Leverage the partnership between a human psychotherapist auditing the results generated by a machine – ethical AI.
The machine can identify the links between risk factors and protective factors, producing a metric to assist in risk assessment.
What has working in this space showed us so far?
Not surprisingly, the topic is quite intricate. While psychology has a solid grasp on risk factors, understanding protective factors remains a challenge. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) note that protective factors can differ greatly from one individual to another. It is crucial to comprehend the interplay between risk and protective factors, as the impact of this relationship on risk assessment scores is not yet fully understood. By leveraging appropriate data and expertise, we can delve into these connections, relationships, and ratios to gain a clearer insight into the genuine risk of suicide for an individual.
Our aspiration
The risk is that if we believe that it cannot be done it will not be done. We believe that it can be done, and we want to do it.
We want to be the first company that the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) gives a recommendation for a biopsychosocial assessment and the subsequent risk formulation that comes out of that.
We hope one day to have the ability to analyse 999 calls and 111 calls extension 2, which is the mental health extension to be able to analyse the data and provide metrics which give a risk formulation score.
We want to give insights that help to save lives and prevent the tremendous suffering caused by suicide in our society.
If you wish to discuss how Akumen can support your organisation, please contact us for an exploratory conversation.
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