A CHARITY is set to launch the UK’s first suicide prevention app for smartphones and tablets.

Brighton-based Grassroots Suicide Prevention has been working with health trusts and digital companies to help develop the life-saving software.

The charity will launch the app on World Suicide Prevention Day next month alongside what is thought to be the world’s first suicide prevention tool for people with learning disabilities.

However, the charity is looking for another £50,000 to take the app to the next level, for example, to incorporate GPS location for support services.

It has been developing the app with the support of Sussex Partnership, Eastbourne-based digital company switchplane and a silent partner.

It is hoped the app, designed to be used by people considering suicide and people concerned about loved ones considering suicide, could be used by all UK mental health trusts.

Features include links to ten specialist support groups and charities, lists of reasons to live and a photograph album of loved ones.

Grassroots director Chris Brown said: “The time is right for this. There is a real gap in the market for this app which is customisable.

“For the first time, this app really does put a suicide prevention tool in ordinary people’s pockets.”

The charity has also developed a suicide prevention DVD for people with learning difficulties in partnership with Hove charity Speak Out.

Five hundred copies of the DVD are being given away locally and it is hoped that it will be made available online.

To help fund the app development or for information, visit prevent- suicide.org.uk/index.html