Suicide is so hard to predict. And our interventions can feel harsh and stigmatizing. Those struggling can feel hopeless. But there's one researcher who made a discovery that should change the way we think about suicide and how we reach those we love: highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/ho…
It started with me cold calling the researcher Jerome Motto. He was in 93 or 94 years old and hard of hearing. He ask me to just yell my questions at him. He then sent me a letter with a copy of his groundbreaking work. His handwriting was shakey. 
A few months later, Motto passed away. But not before telling me the amazing story of his scientific breakthrough. It all began when he served in the Army during WWII.
Motto used to get these letters from a woman he barely knew. The letters kept arriving and soon enough he started to feel a real connection to her. A few summers ago, his widow and son found some letters in a few boxes. I found this letter that laid out his discovery:
In the late ‘60s, Motto thought about those letters and how maybe they could work with people struggling with suicidal urges. So he got a team of researchers together that included a gay minister, a woman who’d become a rabbi, and a former nun. He would later marry the nun.
And so Motto and Co. set out to send letters to those who left hospitals after an attempt and had rejected therapy. They were artists. They were mothers. They were poor. They were night owls. But the letters found them. And they wrote back, sometimes about their struggles.
And here’s a bit of another reply.
And then, after a few years, a study participant sent in what Motto called the “Bingo Letter.” He talked about this one a lot. It was still in mint condition in his files. It was angry, and very, very of its time. But it proved to him the experiment had real promise!
In 1976, Motto published his astounding findings: you could reduce suicides by sending people form letters. Now let’s fast forward to today....
I wanted to find therapists who were replicating Motto’s work, adapting it in other countries and in other forms. Amazingly, Motto’s experiment was done in Australia and Iran and with the U.S. military, with text messages and greeting cards.
I actually worked on the story so long I got to hang out with the Iranian doctor when he visited D.C. for the first time in 2017. We went to Shake Shack! I tried to be fun (I’m not that fun).
Jeez! This thread is getting to be as long as my story. In 2016, I began interviewing @ursulawhiteside — a brilliant therapist who adapted Motto for her clients, sending them caring texts between sessions.
She even made a sample anyone can use at her @NowMattersNow site.
She even made a sample anyone can use at her @NowMattersNow site.
Some of her clients agreed to talk about their experiences getting the messages and what they meant to them. @ursulawhiteside’s texts never stopped being potent. Even after receiving them for years. One patient made a scrapbook out of them.
There are other therapists, even clinics that do versions of Motto. One favorite that I didn't get to write about is with @beckycstone and @Centerstone in Nashville. They have a call center devoted to doing caring calls between therapy sessions. It can be done in large systems.
I found @800273TALK (suicide lifeline) in North Dakota that sends callers postcards. They send hundreds every year.
Motto showed that how we've configured the entire mental health system is wrong. We demand so much from people when they are at their worst. Motto proved we need to court those who are struggling.
The great @eduardovegasays told me that therapy is like "an arranged marriage." What if we found ways to make it less awkward? In Seattle, hospitals have a team of people w/ lived experience that help attempt survivors navigate the system as they leave the hospital.
I interviewed a lot of attempt survivors. Their experiences w/ the system really describe the opposite of care: rides in cop cars, handcuffs, long waits in the ER, indifference nurses, referrals to nowhere. Follow @deseraestage -- she's an expert at documenting their stories.
Also: Today, @RetroReport released their short documentary on Motto and focuses on how the intervention has worked in the military. retroreport.org/video/suicide-…
For people that are struggling, there are therapies that have shown real promise. You just have to know where to look. They aren't available everywhere. Training in these therapies can be expensive and time consuming. But they are worth seeking out.
You can find DBT therapists just by googling them in your area. CAMS is another model that people find really helpful cams-care.com and @craigjbryan's work in Utah w/ BCBT is work looking up veterans.utah.edu
If you are in Michigan, the Henry Ford system is worth checking out. They do really good work through primary care.
And there are really helpful, engaged researchers and therapists available on twitter. Follow: twitter.com/DocForeman and twitter.com/sspencerthomas and twitter.com/BartAndrews and twitter.com/UniteSurvivors and twitter.com/lab_jobes
