Campus Review Vol 30. Issue 03 | March 2020 | Seite 29

TECHNOLOGY
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their suicidal thoughts because the health
professional is going to judge them.
The emphasis in our project is to
train health professionals to have more
compassionate conversations with people
experiencing suicidal thoughts.
How will games technology be used to
develop these video simulations?
First-person saver
Curtin University project uses
games technology to tackle suicide.
By Wade Zaglas
C
urtin University is using games
technology to create web-
based video simulations aimed
at helping mental health experts identify
and better communicate with people
contemplating suicide.
As the World Health Organization points
out, suicide is the second leading cause
of death in people aged 15–29 worldwide,
and one person dies of suicide in the world
every 40 seconds. Research also shows
that most people who suicide have been
in contact with a health professional in the
year leading up to their death.
Such statistics are concerning, given
the high rates of mental health issues in
Australia and other Western countries, and
the introduction of a wide range of mental
health services and initiatives that are
seemingly being underutilised.
In light of this, Dr Anna Fagence from
Curtin’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and
Paramedicine developed a project to help
make identification and treatment of people
with suicidal ideation more effective. The
project was recently awarded a grant by the
WA Department of Health.
Campus Review spoke to Fagence about
some of the issues surrounding suicide
and the benefits of the web-based video
simulations in identification and prevention.
CR: Is suicide on the rise, and if so, why?
AF: In general, as a trend, yes. The Australian
Bureau of Statistics’ rates have fluctuated
over the last 20 years, with a low in 2006
(10.2 per 100,000 people) and a peak in
2015 (12.9 per 100,000). Currently, the rate
is 12.1 per 100,000. It’s the 14th leading
cause of death for all Australians and the
leading cause for Australians aged 15–44.
The reasons are multifactorial, but often
it’s when we become overwhelmed by
things that are happening in our lives. This
can occur in the context of a mental illness
or when we’re under considerable life stress
such as financial trouble, a relationship
breakdown or loss, loneliness and social
isolation, or chronic illness. The person
begins to see death as a way to end pain.
Most of us experience fleeting, low-level
suicidal thoughts at least once in our lives –
for example, wishing we would not wake up
tomorrow. What is much less common is
acting upon those thoughts.
What are some of the challenges faced
by health professionals in identifying and
helping suicidal people?
Health professionals often assess suicide
risk by counting how many risk factors
someone has for suicide, but research
shows that these risk factors aren’t very
good in practice at accurately identifying
who is at risk. Health professionals currently
aren’t able to reliably predict who will move
from thought to action.
What does seem to help identify people
who are at risk is a solid empathetic
relationship between the health
professional and the person. Health
professionals who have better relationships
with people and communicate respectfully
and with compassion provide a safe
environment where people can discuss
their suicidal thoughts without fear of
judgement from the health professional.
However, health professionals often don’t
do this, so people may not feel comfortable
enough to share their thoughts with them.
For example, some health professionals ask
questions like: “So, you’re not thinking of
doing something silly are you?” This signals
to the person that it isn’t safe to discuss
Based on gamification principles, serious
games simulations incorporate engaging
game design elements into healthcare
simulation, where players have objectives,
make decisions during the game, and get
to see how those decisions and choices
influence outcomes. Our project uses
live-action serious video game simulations
to train health professionals to be better
communicators with people experiencing
suicidal thoughts (e.g. to not use
stigmatising or judgmental language).
How will the simulation help healthcare
professionals practise and improve their
communication skills when talking with
people experiencing suicidal thoughts?
Upon entering the game, point-of-view
videos will play where a person will advise
the health professional player that they
have been experiencing some distressing
thoughts but will not disclose the nature
or extent of those thoughts. Health
professional players will then be asked to
make a series of decisions about how to
proceed with the conversation.
Some choices will lead to the health
professional player developing a good
relationship with the person who will then
share more of their suicidal thoughts. Some
choices will lead to the person not sharing
their suicidal thoughts because the health
professional player has chosen to poorly
communicate with the person.
Health professionals will receive a score
based on how well they communicated
with the person and will be able to play
multiple times to better their score.
We’re heavily involving people with lived
experience of suicidal thoughts to help us
construct these serious game simulations
to ensure we capture the right sort of
communication. Once completed, these
simulations will initially be made available to
health professional students and practising
health professionals in WA (including rural
and remote areas). However, being web-
based, there’s considerable scope to make
them available nationally and internationally
with additional research funding. ■
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