Background: Mental health (MH) apps are growing in popularity. While MH apps may be helpful, less is known about how crises such as suicidal ideation are addressed in apps. Aims: We examined the proportion of MH apps that contained language mentioning suicide or suicidal ideation and how apps communicated these policies and directed users to MH resources through app content, terms of services, and privacy policies. Method: We chose apps using an Internet search of "top mental health apps," similar to how a user might find an app, and extracted information about how crisis language was presented in these apps. Results: We found that crisis language was inconsistent among apps. Overall, 35% of apps provided crisis-specific resources in their app interface and 10.5% contained crisis language in terms of service or privacy policies. Limitations: This study employed a nonsystematic approach to sampling apps, and therefore the findings may not broadly represent apps for MH. Conclusion: To address the inconsistency of crisis resources, crisis language should be included as part of app evaluation frameworks, and internationally accessible, vetted resources should be provided to app users.

中文翻译：

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心理健康应用程序是否足以应对危机中的用户？

背景：心理健康 (MH) 应用程序越来越受欢迎。虽然 MH 应用程序可能会有所帮助，但对于如何在应用程序中解决自杀意念等危机知之甚少。目的：我们检查了包含提及自杀或自杀意念的语言的 MH 应用程序的比例，以及应用程序如何传达这些政策并通过应用程序内容、服务条款和隐私政策将用户引导至 MH 资源。方法：我们使用互联网搜索“顶级心理健康应用程序”来选择应用程序，类似于用户如何找到应用程序，并提取有关这些应用程序中如何呈现危机语言的信息。结果：我们发现应用程序之间的危机语言不一致。总体而言，35% 的应用程序在其应用程序界面中提供了针对危机的资源，10.5% 的应用程序在服务或隐私政策方面包含危机语言。局限性：本研究采用非系统方法对应用程序进行抽样，因此研究结果可能无法广泛代表 MH 应用程序。结论：为了解决危机资源的不一致问题，应将危机语言作为应用评估框架的一部分，并应向应用用户提供国际可访问的、经过审查的资源。