Facilitating Factors and Barriers to the Use of Emerging Technologies for Suicide Prevention in Europe: Multicountry Exploratory Study

Abstract

Background: This study provides an analysis on the use of emerging technologies for the prevention of suicide in 8 different European countries. Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the potentiality of using emerging technologies in the area of suicide prevention based on the opinion of different professionals involved in suicide prevention. Methods: Opinions of 3 groups of stakeholders (ie, relevant professionals in suicide field) were gathered using a specifically designed questionnaire to explore dimensions underlying perceptions of facilitating factors and barriers in relation to the use of emerging technologies for suicide prevention. Results: Goal 1 involved facilitating factors for the use of emerging technologies in suicide prevention. Northern European countries, except for Belgium, attach greater relevance to those that optimize implementation and benefits. On the other hand, Southern European countries attach greater importance to professionally oriented and user-centered facilitating factors. According to different stakeholders, the analysis of these facilitating factors suggest that professionals in the field of social work attach greater relevance to those that optimize implementation and benefits. However, professionals involved in the area of mental health, policy makers, and political decision makers give greater importance to professionally oriented and user-centered facilitating factors. Goal 2 was related to barriers to the usability of emerging technologies for suicide prevention. Both countries and stakeholders attach greater importance to barriers associated with resource constraints than to those centered on personal limitations. There are no differences between countries or between stakeholders. Nevertheless, there is a certain stakeholders-countries interaction that indicates that the opinions on resource constraints expressed by different stakeholders do not follow a uniform pattern in different countries, but they differ depending on the country. Conclusions: Although all countries and stakeholders agree in identifying resource constraints as the main barrier to the use of emerging technologies, factors facilitating their use in suicide prevention differ among countries and among stakeholders.