What Our Devices Know: Suicide Loss, Data, and Hope

Episode Description Links & Resources Half a Sorrow Foundation: www.halfasorrow.org Book a Talk with Dennis Gillan: https://halfasorrow.org/book-a-talk/ Make a Donation: https://halfasorrow.org/support-our-work/ Camo Hat Club: https://halfasorrow.org/the-camo-hat-club-half-a-sorrow/ Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HASF2020 Our Guest: Kim Burnett Bartlett The Black Box Project Website: https://bbxproject.org/ Episode Notes: Postvention is prevention. In this powerful episode of It's a Tough Subject, Dennis Gillan and Jessica Seel welcome Kim Burnett Bartlett of the Black Box Project for a deeply important conversation about suicide loss, digital footprints, and how families can help prevent future tragedies. Kim shares her personal story of losing her younger brother, John, to suicide in 2010 and how that life-changing loss led her into the world of suicide postvention and prevention. She explains how the Black Box Project works with families who have lost someone to suicide by borrowing digital devices, securely extracting non-public behavioral data, and helping researchers identify patterns that may reveal opportunities for earlier intervention. This episode explores the difference between the external persona and the internal persona, the role of peer support after suicide loss, and why so many survivors seek meaning by helping others. It is an eye-opening conversation about grief, technology, data science, and hope. If you've ever wondered whether loss can become action, or how postvention can become prevention, this is an episode you do not want to miss. In this episode: Kim Burnett Bartlett's personal story of suicide loss Why suicide grief is often so complicated How the Black Box Project works What digital devices may reveal about crisis and help-seeking Why families choose to participate The importance of peer support and post-traumatic growth How postvention can help prevent future suicide deaths