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U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

hhs.gov

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Re: U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

#11

Post by dragonwriter »

piker wrote: post #3

Don't understand this idea. In UK there's a dozen or so magic numbers with one for each special crisis that you're supposed to memorize. Some are straightforward: 111 (non emergency health), 999 (emergency), but then there's 101, 112, 105? and you're supposed to dial them in certain circumstances. It seems this takes some triage load off, but it also seems like the path from "what's your emergency?" "this is not an e…

(1) it reduces non-emergency load on emergency dispatch (or, if you don't route immediately to emergency dispatch, delay in emergencies reaching emergency dispatch.)

(2) Emergency dispatch may automatically dispatch police/fire/EMS. That may be counterproductive to (and discourage calls for) some other events that a ready access number is desired for.

Re: U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

#12

Post by DigiDigiorno »

decremental wrote: post #8
DigiDigiorno wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please press 1 if you are a danger to yourself or others, Please press 2...

Press one for english. Presione dos para español.

There probably is a IVR (Interactive Voice Response) menu for emergency services somewhere, but it seems a bit too surreal for me.

Re: U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

#13

Post by tadfisher »

DigiDigiorno wrote: post #7

I'm not sure how these lines work. I wonder how they balance public safety against the disincentive of involuntary commitment and the stigmas attached to it. I imagine if you feel there is a risk you will have your rights taken away (including the ability to end your life), you are less likely to seek help.

Sure, but you have to weigh this option with the alternative, which is no option. Is it worth $0.5 billion to add a convenient number? Debatable. Will some people use it, and in turn prevent death and injury? Absolutely.

Re: U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

#14

Post by fassssst »

DigiDigiorno wrote: post #7

I'm not sure how these lines work. I wonder how they balance public safety against the disincentive of involuntary commitment and the stigmas attached to it. I imagine if you feel there is a risk you will have your rights taken away (including the ability to end your life), you are less likely to seek help.

More info here:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/15/1111316...

Re: U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

#16

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

This is a classic regulatory capture. Now that there is a standard number that has to be serviced there will be more demand for the companies providing these services. They in turn get more volume of data to sell off to the brokers.

Re: U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

#17

Post by piker »

dragonwriter wrote: post #11
piker wrote: post #3

Don't understand this idea. In UK there's a dozen or so magic numbers with one for each special crisis that you're supposed to memorize. Some are straightforward: 111 (non emergency health), 999 (emergency), but then there's 101, 112, 105? and you're supposed to dial them in certain circumstances. It seems this takes some triage load off, but it also seems like the path from "what's your emergency?" "this is not an e…

(1) it reduces non-emergency load on emergency dispatch (or, if you don't route immediately to emergency dispatch, delay in emergencies reaching emergency dispatch.) (2) Emergency dispatch may automatically dispatch police/fire/EMS. That may be counterproductive to (and discourage calls for) some other events that a ready access number is desired for.

(1) "is this an emergency?" yes/no must be close to O(1)

(2) is this done in practice or just hypothetical?

Re: U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

#18

Post by 1123581321 »

piker wrote: post #3

Don't understand this idea. In UK there's a dozen or so magic numbers with one for each special crisis that you're supposed to memorize. Some are straightforward: 111 (non emergency health), 999 (emergency), but then there's 101, 112, 105? and you're supposed to dial them in certain circumstances. It seems this takes some triage load off, but it also seems like the path from "what's your emergency?" "this is not an e…

You can already call either 911 or the ten digit suicide hotline humber about suicide. 988 is just shorthand for the full suicide hotline number.

You won’t get in trouble if you call 911 about suicide, but if they think it’s not urgent they may point you to other resources rather than dispatch emergency services. The suicide hotline provides non-emergency resources but can’t emergency dispatch.

Perhaps in the future, more 911 centers will be expanded to include non-emergency suicide resources, but most or all don’t have that right now.

Re: U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

#19

Post by charcircuit »

DigiDigiorno wrote: post #7

I'm not sure how these lines work. I wonder how they balance public safety against the disincentive of involuntary commitment and the stigmas attached to it. I imagine if you feel there is a risk you will have your rights taken away (including the ability to end your life), you are less likely to seek help.

>I imagine if you feel there is a risk you will have your rights taken away

If this is possible imagine if people "swatted" you with this to get you locked up somewhere.

Re: U.S. transition to 988 suicide and crisis lifeline begins Saturday

#20

Post by belltaco »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #16

This is a classic regulatory capture. Now that there is a standard number that has to be serviced there will be more demand for the companies providing these services. They in turn get more volume of data to sell off to the brokers.

That's not what regulatory capture is, much less classic.
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