Jerome Motto

Jerome Motto (October 16, 1921 – January 4, 2015) was an American psychiatrist who conducted the first suicide prevention intervention that reduced deaths by suicide, 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 technique involves letters sent from a researcher who had spoken at length with the recipient during a suicidal crisis.

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