Suicide prevention

In New Zealand, Pacific youth are three times more likely to attempt suicide, according to a University of Auckland study published this year in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

Cultural barriers around discussing suicide have long been seen as an obstacle preventing people at risk from coming forward.

Suicide is considered a particularly taboo topic in the Tongan culture and research on that needed to be handled carefully.

Heilala Malu is the first system to specifically focus on suicide prevention among Tongan youth in New Zealand.

Auckland University of Technology graduate student, 'Aulola Fuka-Lino, says she hopes it helps lift the taboo on suicide in the Tongan community.

She says the resource is a tribute to the Tongan families and the stories they've shared.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds -- and Facebook wants to leverage artificial intelligence to help with prevention.

The company announced Wednesday it is testing the ability for AI to identify potential "suicide or self injury" posts based on pattern recognition from posts that have been previously flagged on the site in the past. Its community operations team will then review the posts to decide if Facebook should surface crisis resources to the user.