Impact of supportive text messages on suicidal thoughts

Subscribers of Text4Hope who had enrolled for six weeks (Intervention Group) had significantly lower prevalence of suicidal thoughts compared to new subscribers during the same time period (Control Group) (16·9% vs. 26·6% respectively).

In a naturalistic controlled study which examined the effectiveness of Text4Hope program in alleviating psychological symptoms and improving wellbeing among subscribers in Alberta and Nova Scotia during the 2023 wildfires, the intervention group who had received the daily messages for six weeks had a significantly lower mean score on the ninth question on the PHQ-9 (−60.0%) which measures the intensity of suicidal ideation, and an increase in the mean score on the WHO-5 Wellness Index (+24.7%) from baseline to six weeks compared to the control group who had subscribed to the program but had not yet received any messages.