41–50 of 354 posts
I suffer from pretty severe depression. It runs in my family and it is something I've struggled with for a number of years. During depressive episodes, I have no interest in connecting with other people. This includes friends, therapists, family, etc. So the idea that I would ever pick up the phone and call a suicide hotline to talk to someone on the phone about my depression is borderline laughable.
I also think suicide hotlines have become a convenient and easy way for people to ignore and dismiss sufferers of depression in online discourse while virtue signaling that they care. Rather than offering advice, help, solace, or anything remotely human, it has become commonplace for social media users to simply paste the suicide hotline number and walk away pretending to have helped the situation when in reality they have only helped themselves.
In addition, we must also dial "1" before the area code when placing outgoing calls to certain neighboring area codes.
It's unclear exactly why - I imagine it has to do with some numbers conflicting with the "988" number in some way.
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.
Many (most?) are anonymous and won't ask for your name, but can obviously trace a cellular phone in an emergency unless you take active steps to avoid that.
Whether they are 'joined up' is a good question. Do they know of each other's services and are they able to patch a caller through to another specialist, quickly and at no cost? Much may depend on the operator you get. People are people, and some are less well trained, perceptive, or able to act on initiative.
Most organisations are also funded by charity/donations and get less public money with each government. In the UK We've had to adapt to a patchwork of independent services because central government has been making cuts since the Thatcher era. For example, the last government shut down most of the coast-guard stations, and a week later a crew of fishermen drowned within a stones throw of a closed lookout station. That caused a scandal that led to a new organisation (CoastWatch) staffed by volunteer civilians and funded by private donations. The people literally took over the abandoned stations and started operating them on a grass-roots basis.
Interesting side effect of this: In my local phone number area code, it's no longer possible to dial local numbers without the area code. That means all outgoing calls require an area code, whereas normally you can dial local numbers without an area code. In addition, we must also dial "1" before the area code when placing outgoing calls to certain neighboring area codes. It's unclear exactly why - I imagine it has t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
call me a cynnic but as an american...this is theater. people already avoid a call to 911 because the subsequent ambulance service is unaffordable and can land you in collections. they avoid the ER for the same reason. 988 assumes anyone who needs crisis care will be able to get it, or even afford it and the ecosystem of services and medications that may ensue. 988 gives, as amber alert did, a can for politicians to…
I don’t disagree. But I’m not sure what alternative I have to hoping this might be the start of something. In Ontario an ambulance trip is about $40. But in the US it can be crippling.
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.
Data from these numbers is protected by HIPAA and callers can voluntarily be anonymous.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandralevine/2022/02/24/suic...
You can't anonymize your phone number which is all a data broker needs to connect to your identity.
Suicide hotlines, on the surface, seem like a good thing. Having a phone number someone can call 24/7 to talk to someone who is trained in helping someone undergoing a mental health crisis seems like an effective way to reduce suicides and benefit mental health overall. However, I think they have the opposite effect in practice. I suffer from pretty severe depression. It runs in my family and it is something I've str…
I think having a universal number to call if you don't have anyone else is valuable. Will it stop all suicides? No. Will it help reduce suicides in people who are considering but not yet decided? Yes.
Suicide hotlines, on the surface, seem like a good thing. Having a phone number someone can call 24/7 to talk to someone who is trained in helping someone undergoing a mental health crisis seems like an effective way to reduce suicides and benefit mental health overall. However, I think they have the opposite effect in practice. I suffer from pretty severe depression. It runs in my family and it is something I've str…
I've noticed this about society too. We often employ the "easiest" solution to some major problem. Look at homelessness, theft, drugs, mass murders. None of the solutions work. (All of the problems are seemingly ALWAYS on the rise - not fall)
I've been wonder if the actual root of the problem is everyone becoming an island. Communal interaction has been replaced with online interaction (social media).