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	Samaritans has launched a new free app which allows the family and friends of someone who is vulnerable to severe mental stress to monitor their activity on social networking site Twitter.</p>
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	The Samaritans radar gives users a chance to see potentially worrying tweets which were sent by someone who may be struggling to cope. It uses a specially designed map that looks for specific keywords and phrases within a Tweet.</p>
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	It then sends an email alert to the user with a link to the Tweet it has detected, and offers guidance on the best way of reaching out and providing support.</p>
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	Joe Ferns, executive director of policy, research and development at Samaritans said the support organisation recognises that social media is increasingly being used as an outlet for people to share their feelings.</p>
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	&quot;In addition, there are some who may go online in the hope that someone will reach out and offer support,&quot; he said.</p>
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	He said it would provide an online safety net, reducing the chances of a person&#39;s call for help being missed. &quot;The first-of-its-kind app was developed with input from academic experts, to identify the phrases that vulnerable people use on social media,&quot; he added.</p>
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	The Samaritans radar was created by digital agency Jam and can be activated in just two steps from the website www.samaritansradar.org. All alerts are sent to the subscriber&#39;s email address directly - never to their Twitter followers - and radar doesn&#39;t post to Twitter on the subscriber&#39;s behalf.</p>
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	Twitter&#39;s wider collaboration with Samaritans includes a referral process which works in two ways: Twitter has Samaritans listed within their help centre as the go-to organisation for suicide prevention the Republic of Ireland and the UK.</p>
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	When somebody gets reported as suicidal, the Twitter Trust &amp; Safety team verifies the report and if they deem it accurate, they get in touch with both the reported and the reported account, to share recommendations and contact information for Samaritans.</p>
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	Around one in five people in Ireland is on Twitter.<br />
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	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/free-app-helps-find-friends-in-trouble-on-twitter-30701441.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/free-app-helps-find-friends-in-trouble-on-twitter-30701441.html</a></p>
