Jerome Motto (October 16, 1921 – January 4, 2015) was an American
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
who conducted the first
suicide prevention
Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public health ...
intervention that reduced deaths by
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
, as proven through a randomized controlled trial.
The study involved mailing short letters that expressed the researchers' interest in the recipients without pressuring them to take any action.
Motto's approach is sometimes called the "Caring Letters" model of suicide prevention.
The approach, which was partly inspired by Motto's experience of receiving letters during World War II from a young woman he had met before being deployed,
sent a letter from a researcher who had spoken at length with the recipient during a suicidal crisis.
The typewritten form letters were brief – sometimes as little as two sentences – personally signed by the researcher, and expressed interest in the recipient without making any demands.
They were sent monthly at the beginning, and eventually decreased to quarterly letters; if the recipient wrote back, then an additional personal letter was mailed.
Although the exact mechanisms can be debated, researchers generally think that they communicate a genuine interest and
social connection
Social connection is the experience of feeling close and connected to others. It involves feeling loved, cared for, and valued, and forms the basis of interpersonal relationships."Connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel ...
that the recipients find helpful.
Caring letters is inexpensive and either the only,
or one of very few,
approaches to suicide prevention that has been scientifically proven to work during the first years after a suicide attempt that resulted hospitalization.
Jerome Motto died on January 4, 2015, at Mills Peninsula Hospital in
Burlingame, California
Burlingame () is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame and is known for its numerous eucalyp ...
.
Publications
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References
External links
Research summaryat Stanford University's SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-world Questions)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Motto, Jerome
1921 births
2015 deaths
American psychiatrists
American military personnel of World War II