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

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101–110 of 354 posts

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

#101
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm hesitant to answer this because a lot of what I'd have to say can't be corroborated except for people who work or worked there. I'll summarize, with the understanding that I left a month after the 2020 election (I gave my notice in October 2020 and stayed on to get the organization through potential security issues around the election). - A culture of internal anti-Blackness. During the uprising of 2020, staff an…

And your new role is as an editorial board member for CovertAction Magazine? https://twitter.com/covertactionmag?s=21&t=zbpg0lQWdYJ70Gbhq...

I'm on the EB but I don't get paid for that. Why?

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

#102
The other really important thing here would be requiring healthcare to cover therapy. I have many friends that need therapy for trauma/cPTSD issues that cannot afford it and thus don't seek help. It will more than pay for itself in prevention before mental health issues become worse and then require crisis intervention. It could substantially improve the overall health of America in a lot of ways.

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

#103
post #30

Policing is in such a horrible state in America that an emergency number that excludes police involvement seems increasingly necessary. I wonder if you can get paramedics through this route or if it just rings and you eventually get a counsellor.

I have experience in this field: I ran technology for one of the only hotlines in the US that didn't engage in non-consensual active rescue [0] [1]. I've written about this a little on this site in the past, when Crisis Text Line was caught sharing data. Many, if not most, of these places give the operator full access to your phone number and whatever geolocation data they can get based on that. They also have polici…

> the police are more likely to come into the situation looking for conflict

"We don't have time for this" [0] comes to mind.

[0] https://www.insider.com/cop-said-i-dont-have-time-shooting-k...

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

#104
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And your new role is as an editorial board member for CovertAction Magazine? https://twitter.com/covertactionmag?s=21&t=zbpg0lQWdYJ70Gbhq...

I'm on the EB but I don't get paid for that. Why?

Because I know pro-Russian propaganda when I see it.

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

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

-- An ambulance in Ontario is $40 if you have OHIP - I know plenty of non-OHIP folks who have gotten hit with $200+ ambulance bills - myself included --

I paid $1400 for an 8 mile ambulance ride this year in Colorado. I think this was applied to my high deductible health plan, but I got to pay the full amount (and they don't provide any kind of discounts to insurance companies).

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

#106

I’ve heard people advise not to call such hotlines because their intervention is not limited to just talking to you. It’s said they often cal the police who stop you by force and often make your life even worse than it was.

Some of that is on the FAQ page: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/988/faqs

Will 988 calls be referred to 911?

Currently, a small percentage of Lifeline calls require activation of the 911 system when there is imminent risk to someone’s life that cannot be reduced during the Lifeline call. In these cases, the crisis counselor shares information with 911 that is crucial to saving the caller’s life.

So it does sound like that can happen. Though I don't know what else they could reasonably do if it sounds like the caller is imminently going to do serious self-harm.

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

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My last ambulance trip in the US was billed at $12000. With my (good!) insurance I still had to pay $500.

$500 for a specialized vehicle on demand 24/7 with somewhat trained workers who have to deal with undesirable work seems pretty good. Assuming that was under the deductible, so the ambulance provider did not get paid anything else, and $500 was the negotiated pricing for members of your insurance plan.

Would you also calculate the economics of privatized firefighters like that?

Or are you at some point willing to admit that not everything should be a private, purely for profit/shareholder value, venture?

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

#108
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…

112 is the european emergency number. If you have an issue while on vacation, only remember this. The Brussel effect made it international, and now i think most touristic destination use this number. Also, with a European operator, calling 112 will redirect you to local emergency numbers (let's say 911 if you are currently in the US).

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

#109

I’ve heard people advise not to call such hotlines because their intervention is not limited to just talking to you. It’s said they often cal the police who stop you by force and often make your life even worse than it was.

Yup. A friend related a similar story to me.

Having some counselors stop by or something, might be cool, but the police are basically the opposite of that, at least today, at least in most places. I can't imagine a worse sequence of events to kick off.

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