Teen suicide is hard to predict. Some experts are turning to machines for help [chicagotribune.com]

In any given week, Ben Crotte, a behavioral health therapist at Children's Home of Cincinnati, speaks to dozens of students in need of an outlet.

Their challenges run the adolescent gamut, from minor stress about an upcoming test to severe depression, social isolation and bullying.

Amid the flood of conversations, meetings and paperwork, the challenge for Crotte - and mental health professionals everywhere - is separating hopeless expressions of pain and suffering from crucial warning signs that suggest a student is at risk for committing suicide.

It's a daunting, high-pressure task, which explains why Crotte was willing to add another potentially useful tool to his diagnostic kit: an app that uses an algorithm to analyze speech and determine whether someone is likely to take their own life.

Its name: "Spreading Activation Mobile" or "SAM."

[For more on this story by Peter Holley, go to http://www.chicagotribune.com/...-20170927-story.html]

Photo: Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center are testing an app in schools that analyzes language to determine whether teens are at risk for suicide. They call it Spreading Activation Mobile or "SAM." (John Pestian)