Columbia Protocol

Filling this out, it was clear that these are just standard questions that any slightly trained clinician would already be asking and evaluating. The app brings nothing new to the table. After filling it out with a 45 year old client, the app recommended calling the local community youth services; which, by the way, does not even have a crisis line.

We received the training related to the questions shown on this app. However, developers, including yours, always forget that some of us do not have smart phones, but may have an iPad instead. It is quite awkward to use this app when I have to turn my iPad to portrait mode. iPads work in landscape mode. It’s easier especially if a keyboard is attached. Please fix that lack of ability to rotate to landscape mode. It would also be nice to have a program available for the computer, or at least a website that mimics this app. Again, making it practical for everyone should be the goal. What happens if a teacher is confronted with a student who needs attention. No phone, no iPad, no way to follow through with appropriate questions.

Many of the items in the app ask multiple questions (for which there may be different answers,) but then give only one yes/no option to respond. When that happens, the app is in essence collecting an answer from the user without knowing to which of the conflicting questions from that item the user was responding. An example: Q: “Have you thought about how you might do this... e.g. ‘I thought about taking an overdose but I never made a specific plan as to when or how I would do it... and would never go through with it.’” A: Yes/No This question asks 1) “have you ever thought about how you would do it,” but the example item posits two other questions, such as 2) did you have a specific plan, and 3) did you decide you would never go through with it; but allows the user to answer only once, “yes,” or “no.” If the user answers “no” because they didn’t decide they’d never go through with it, you’d get a false negative on that item. A false negative, or in this app the potential for MULTIPLE false negatives, is a bad (negligent) idea in a suicide screener. Not very well done.