R;pple
I was recently part of a presentation by a young lady called Alice Hendy. Alice runs a not-for-profit company called https://www.ripplesuicideprevention.com
She is a cyber security lead at a top insurance company. 18 months ago she lost her brother to suicide. After the inquest she was given her brothers laptop & phone and discovered that he had been researching suicide for quite some time. She was concerned that some of the websites and forums that he looked at were actually giving tips and encouraging him to complete suicide. She was determined to do something about this and therefore in her own time and with the support of more and more people she has developed a browser add on that intercepts any self-harm or suicide searches.
The Impact
- To date, our technology has been downloaded over 250,000 times, with schools, colleges, universities, parents, carers and charities able to download R;pple, free of charge (fee required from businesses)
- R;pple has now been ‘triggered’ 1,863 times, meaning we have intercepted 1,863 people from harmful online searches.
- 23 external individuals have approached R;pple to inform us that the tool intercepting them online at their most vulnerable point has saved their life and that they are now receiving mental health support.
- R;pple has won 10 prestigious awards in the mental health and innovation space.
- R;pple has gained significant National media coverage, reaching over 8.5 million people
Useful Links
They have developed a system that now means the add on doesn’t need to be on individual machines but can work wireless networks.
They have yet to devise a way to get it on to phones and tablets, but they will get there.
It is free to community organisations and families
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