Columbia Protocol

response required

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.