A Chatbot for Providing Suicide Prevention Information in S panish (2025)

Abstract: Suicide has been identified by the World Health Organization as one of the most serious health problems that can affect people. Among the interventions that have been proposed to help people suffering from this problem and their relatives, the dissemination of accurate information is crucial. To achieve this goal, we have developed PrevenIA, a chatbot that provides reliable information on suicide prevention. The chatbot consists of a Retrieval Augmented Module for answering users’ queries based on a curated list of documents. In addition, it includes several models to avoid undesirable behaviours. The system has been validated by specialists and is currently being evaluated by different populations. Thanks to this project, reliable information on suicide will be disseminated in an easy and understandable form.

## introduction suicide is the second leading cause of external factors death in spain, with 4116 cases in 2023 (instituto nacional de estadística, 2024), and each completed suicide is believed to be accompanied by approximately 20 attempts @xcite . in addition, it is estimated that at least 6 survivors of the deceased are directly affected by the loss @xcite . due to these numbers, the world health organisation has urged all member states to prioritise the mitigation of suicides and attempted suicides @xcite . in spain, several suicide prevention plans have been developed in some autonomous regions (see, for example, those of the canary islands (servicio canario @xcite , navarre (gobierno de navarra, 2014), or la rioja @xcite ). among the interventions proposed by those plans, we can find measures targeting different audiences (such as general population, health professionals, or media) @xcite . in particular, measures aimed at the general public include the establishment of support networks, the implementation of training programs, and the dissemination of accurate information. the latter is highly relevant in a misinformation era @xcite . chatbots have recently shown their potential to provide information in medical scenarios @xcite ; and, in the context of suicide, they might serve to disseminate crucial information, offer support, and provide a platform for individuals to express their feelings anonymously @xcite @xcite . however, in this context, chatbots should be thoroughly evaluated before releasing them. in this work, we present a tool called prevenia, that aims at providing suicide prevention information in spanish, the design choices that have been taken to improve its reliability, and the validation stages that have been conducted before releasing it to the general public.