We had the good fortune of connecting with Lavik Jain Shivansh Nikhra and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lavik Jain, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?

A lot of the roots of our initiative were discovered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools were shut down, so we had the extra time to explore machine learning (which was of our interest at the time). Mental health was all the talk, so it was naturally on our minds as well. Most of all, almost all interaction was online, so we realized that some people were more expressive on social media than they were in-person.

That’s when we realized that we could harness machine learning to detect suicidal individuals that didn’t know where to find help. So that’s why we started developing this software that bridges the gap between those in need and the help they needed. And that’s how SuicideWatch was born.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

We certainly did face a lot of challenges in seeing SuicideWatch touch the lives of others. Even once we had a completely functioning software, we spent months on end in efforts to find mental health organizations—across the nation and close to home—that could help the suicidal individuals we detected.

But whether they be an organizations’ limited resources or federal regulations, something or another would bar us from seeing our first partnership and ability to actually save lives. That didn’t stop up from keeping at it. After months of networking with police departments, crisis hotlines, and various mental health councils, we were connected to our first partner: the Wylie Police Department. Once we had a functioning proof of concept, we could show the world what we were actually doing. From there, one connection led to the next, which led to the next.

Today, we have helped 550+ suicidal social media users from 47 cities across the nation with a patent pending on our product. But we aren’t done. We want to continue to expand our reach. So if you or someone you know may be able to provide services to suicidal individuals, please reach out to us. We are looking forward to making great things happen!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

We would like to thank our partners, the Mental Health America of Dutchess County, Denton County MHMR, Texas HHS, Wylie Police Department, Frisco Police Department, and Irving Police Department. These organizations helped us navigate the world of suicide prevention, improve our software, and come up with new ideas. Most importantly, without their support, we wouldn’t be able to connect the suicidal social media users we find with assistance. Their advice and support were crucial to fueling our project to success.

We would also like to extend our gratitude to Professor Norman Sadeh of Carnegie Mellon University and Dr. John Thickstun of Stanford University. Thank you for working with us to discuss our software and giving us key insight on methods to improve our machine learning model.

And most importantly, a special shoutout to Shoutout DFW for helping us spread our message and inspiring people to take action!

Website: https://www.projectsuicidewatch.org/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/suicidewatch/

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