Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline • Hacker News Board

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#121

Post by dlev_pika » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 10:08 PM UTC

mystraline wrote: post #115

dlev_pika wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s why we have laws protecting end of life rights in Oregon - which are much preferred over millions of firearms in the hands of ‘rEsPoNsIbLe gun oWnErS’, impulsive and impaired decision making, and someone walking into a traumatic mess coming back home.

Most of the rest of states use hospice as a way to kill people with morphine. Basically they give the patient as much as they want, and usually stops their heart. Naturally, medically assisted suicide is illegal in most states. But its wink wink nudge nudge "pain management".

I hear you - as usual, people will do what they need to do in the way they can.

Personally, I wish we collectively recognized that this ‘pain management’ is a disservice to all dealing with those situations, much like handing out medical marihuana cards to recreational users was for actual patients, or women addressing family planning issues in some less than acceptable settings. Alas…

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#122

Post by renewiltord » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 10:16 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #119

renewiltord wrote: post #88

[flagged]

> All I know is that if I call this, they're going to wellness-check me... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-988-call-the-police-data-s... "Many people in mental health crisis fear that if they dial 988, law enforcement might show up or they might be forced to go to the hospital. But getting sent that kind of 'involuntary emergency rescue' happens to around 1% of callers, suggests new data from Vibrant Emotional Heal…

Nah he’s bullshitting. It’s 1% of calls, not callers. If you’re in the 1% you’re not making another call. If you’re in the 99% you get to call again tomorrow.

Listen, if you want to check your wellness be my guest. I won’t be.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#123

Post by array_key_first » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 10:19 PM UTC

fhn wrote: post #53

GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a really weird comparison to make given that the US has basically made no material progress on policy that could prevent mass shootings. they're both really really bad things. they both deserve as much attention as we can afford (which is more than they get). not to just jump down your throat -- i agree with you about more needing to be done to prevent suicides though. i think it's a good thing that hotlines…

in your opinion, what policy should be made because whatever policy you make won't do much as long as guns exist?

Policy still matters even if guns exist. After all, murder is still illegal even though murderers exist. Building a bomb is still illegal even though bombs exist.

The tricky part with the US is the already vast supply of firearms circulating. Can't do much about that.

But, I would think, stopping or reducing the sale of guns right now would still have an effect. We already somewhat regularly try to reduce the sale of guns via policy, mostly to people we think are potentially dangerous.

But, I don't know exactly how much that has helped, or will help. What I do know is there is definitely variance in gun violence. Both across nations, but also across states in the US. So, something is behind it.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#124

Post by mmcdermott » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 10:25 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #114

mmcdermott wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> something a congressional rep is deciding on. Congress does not, by and large, get down to that level. They are typically approving a line time that encompasses a form of lump sum (i.e. "$100 million to NSF across these categories"). You can see the budget request here: https://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2026 Defense spending would typically be a gruesome bidding process. But either way, your proposal must at some…

> Congress does not, by and large, get down to that level. Oh, they love to do precisely that. https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/reps/dr-paul-delivers-ope... https://www.factcheck.org/2017/11/senator-misleads-absurd-sc... > But either way, your proposal must at some point speak to something a generalist would understand. A competent generalist, sure. But we've gone and given significant veto power to random Twitter…

> Oh, they love to do precisely that.

I think it's been pretty well established that most legislators do not take the time to understand the details of bills prior to voting.

Moreover, these articles refer to an attempt to question how grant money already given (and presumably spent) was used.

Scrutiny is an inherent part of the powers of the purse. I.e. "we gave you $100 million to provide disaster relief, economic development in our sphere of influence, etc - what did you do with it?"

It's fair to want to retain the spending being questioned, but Congress is explicitly responsible for this function.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#125

Post by Frieren » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 11:17 PM UTC

umpalumpaaa wrote: post #67

A while ago I was seriously sick + in a hospital (for a few months). The doctors told me that I won't be able to resume my regular job (software engineer). At the same time I was in a lot of pain – unable to sit, walk, stand. It was not really clear how it all would end. I got deeply depressed and just wanted to die. The pain was just too much - even with controlled pain medication in a hospital setup. I called the G…

I hope that you feel better now. And I am very happy that you got help.

Mental help is never a cost for society, it is an investment.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#126

Post by LorenPechtel » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 11:31 PM UTC

hirvi74 wrote: post #43

rolph wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/data.html the data from CDC agrees with you, and agrees that a firearm is most common method. but also indicates age correlate with freq of suicde by firearm. guess who the least frequent group is, kids. now that might fly in the face of stats, but suicide is an "intentional" thing. [that rides on the idea that you are competent to form intent when suicidal] so yes if you keep your g…

> however take at least as much care for your grandparents, they are apparently at extreme risk, of forming intent and, acting especially grandpa. What if allowing suicide is taking care of one's grandparents? After all, if I was diagnosed with a awful condition like Alzheimer's, ALS, etc.. I am absolutely going out that way once I start having more bad days than good days.

Yeah. We focus so much on suicide without sorting out whether it's temporary despair or declining health where there is no good answer.

We should be trying to help/prevent the former, for the latter I think we should only be trying to be sure they're not the former. But the data always lumps them and I get very suspicious when data lumps two very different cases.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#127

Post by LorenPechtel » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 11:33 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #73

mystraline wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So yeah, why not? Choosing to end thyself IS the penultimate "my body, my choice". We have immediate "no money, lost job, destitute" (insert temporary issue). And we have chronic, everpresent, or terminal problem. We could fix the first one, but socially we choose not to. Either way, we should have the right of bodily autonomy. I guess the american answer is, for a suicide help call, show up with pigs with guns, and…

The phrase "suicide by cop" didn't create itself out of thin air.

Yup. It's IIRC about a third where there's reason to think suicide was the intent and many others where it wasn't directly suicide but people who decide dying is better than whatever sentence likely awaits.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#128

Post by b3ing » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 11:34 PM UTC

umpalumpaaa wrote: post #67

A while ago I was seriously sick + in a hospital (for a few months). The doctors told me that I won't be able to resume my regular job (software engineer). At the same time I was in a lot of pain – unable to sit, walk, stand. It was not really clear how it all would end. I got deeply depressed and just wanted to die. The pain was just too much - even with controlled pain medication in a hospital setup. I called the G…

In the US they try to get you off the phone after 5 min and you can hear it in their voice, I know there is a lot of traffic but still it doesn’t help

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#129

Post by defrost » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 11:40 PM UTC

fhn wrote: post #53

GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is a really weird comparison to make given that the US has basically made no material progress on policy that could prevent mass shootings. they're both really really bad things. they both deserve as much attention as we can afford (which is more than they get). not to just jump down your throat -- i agree with you about more needing to be done to prevent suicides though. i think it's a good thing that hotlines…

in your opinion, what policy should be made because whatever policy you make won't do much as long as guns exist?

Australian policy on guns (princially unifying existing gun regulation across all of Australia including Queensland, Tasmania, and the Territories) had a significant impact on mass shooting, individual shooting, gun suicides, etc throughout the 30 years following the Port Arthur massacre.

During the period legitimate gun ownership (people with guns) has sharply declined in larger urban areas, remained about the same in "working with guns" population demographics, and total numbers of guns in Australia have increased.

No large scale mass shootings since, no "mass shootings" (four or more dead / injured (?? - I can't recall the low bar threshold)) at all for nearly 30 years, three or four such events total overall rather than the practically one a day numbers in the USofA.

No policy or constitution is perfect, of course, Australia is currently in a period of revising some of that policy.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#130

Post by LorenPechtel » Wed, Apr 22, 2026, 11:45 PM UTC

mystraline wrote: post #84

alistairSH wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phrase "suicide by cop" didn't create itself out of thin air.

Well, thats usually relegated by someone who wants to die but is too scared to do it. So they find people who legally can, usually by waving an empty gun around. But what I'm seeing is 60% of the people here in the USA are not functionally sustainable economically wise. And that is completely a fixable problem. But given how corrupted our government is, its likely not going to be fixed in the reasonable future (say,…

And it's the hate victims that are one of groups I think we should be trying hardest with. Hate is an external problem, not an internal problem. The situation often can be fixed.