Open Data and Innovations for Suicide Prevention: #MentalHealthHackathon

You are registered to Open Data and Innovations for Suicide Prevention. View event information with your local times/location here: #MentalHealthHackathon 12/12.

Our vision is to use data to identify new opportunities to strengthen mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are participating on Saturday, December 12, 2015 (12/12) in a series of suicide prevention hackathons in five cities across the United States -- #MentalHealthHackathon 12/12 -- in Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; and Washington, D.C. The Obama Administration places a top priority on science and data as tools for solving complex challenges including public health, mental health, and suicide prevention. OSTP efforts are follow-up efforts from the White House Partnerships for Suicide Prevention event, October 9, 2015, with this mission: “Using data to strengthen mental health awareness and suicide prevention as part of Global Suicide Prevention Month and Global MentaAl Health Day."

How can you get involved?

Follow along and contribute to virtual diiscussions with the hashtag #MentalHealthHackathon. To in-person connect to advance mental health and suicide prevention efforts, organizations across the United States will host a series of events on Saturday, December 12th, in five cities:  

Boston, MA:

The Department of Veteran Affairs Healthcare System in Jamaica Plain will host a data sprint focused on identifying Veterans at-risk for suicides using federal + academic open data sets. This event is focused on connecting mental health professionals, Veterans, supporters, designers, technologists, and data scientists to co-design interventions using open data sets to proactively reach Veterans at risk for suicide.
         Location: Department of Veteran Affairs, 150 South Huntington Ave, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
         Time: 8:00am ET – 6:00pm ET
 
Chicago, IL:

The Office of the Mayor of the City of Chicago will host a hackathon focused on answering the question: How can we create one database of referrals for organizations that refer people to mental health and emergency services? This event is focused on bringing engineers, data enthusiasts, and local agencies together to create a sustainable solution to real-time referrals.
         Location: City Hall, 121 N. La Salle Street, Chicago, IL 60602
         Time: 11:00am ET – 5:00pm ET (10:00am – 4:00pm local time)
 
New York, NY:

Crisis Text Line will host a hackathon and data sprint to develop an open API for mandatory reporting in all 50 states, which will be freely available for all suicide prevention services to use.
         Location: Crisis Text Line, 24 W 25th St, New York, NY 10010
         Time: 10:00am ET – 4:00pm ET
 
San Francisco, CA:

Bayes Impact will host a hackathon to build software prototypes and data visualizations using open data to address suicide among Veterans. This event will virtually bring together domain experts from the Boston event with designers, engineers, and data scientists from leading Silicon Valley companies for a cross-country collaborative effort.
         Location: Galvanize SF, 44 Tehama St, San Francisco, CA 94105
         Time: 12:00pm ET – 10:00pm ET (9:00am – 7:00pm local time)
 
Washington, D.C.:

Impact Hub DC will host a tech sprint to augment Data.gov—the home of the government’s open data where the public can find free data, tools, and resources—by adding new and enhancing datasets related to suicide in order to stimulate new research, encourage innovative data visualizations, and facilitate the development of web and mobile applications.
          Location: Impact Hub DC, 419 7th St NW, Ste 300, Washington, DC 20004
          Time: 10:00am ET – 4:00pm ET

Each hackathon/data jam will bring together data scientists, innovators, designers, and next-gen technologists with subject matter experts in suicide prevention. All are united with a common purpose to prevent suicide, yet each city event will develop its own unique product, tool, or analysis.

Events are free and open to the public, space allowing, so RSVP now below. You can join in-person at one of the above events or create your own. Once you sign up below, the specific details, such as location, will be sent to you from the event organizers. Get the word out, share your ideas for suicide prevention, and follow along with: #MentalHealthHackathon.