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Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

nytimes.com

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Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#31

Post by ceejayoz »

nyanmatt wrote: post #27

I don’t see how. Have you ever tried calling one of these lines in a suicide emergency? Things I’ve learned in California: - an ambulance will not be dispatched unless you physically witness someone trying to kill themselves - otherwise, they send the police - the police arrive without training and severely escalate the situation - the person having an emergency will be taken into custody and stripped of rights until…

I have a loved one who used the 988 hotline several times.

None of them resulted in police intervention. Our county has a mobile crisis team of social workers who show up and get you connected to services.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#32

Post by Calazon »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #13
ceejayoz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that logic, pediatricians and gynecologists shouldn't exist. > A national hotline that can handle anyone is clearly the right way. Absolutely. That describes this setup. You call the number. You get help. Sometimes that means a person trained in, say, talking to rape victims. (If you go to the ER, they'll have a nurse trained in it too!) Per the article: "Also known as the 'Press 3 option,' the program gave 988 ca…

> pediatricians and gynecologists Those are physical differences. Which isn’t to say that you’re wrong, but we could easily have different things for physical differences and not for mental differences. Should we have different prisons for gays? Same logic, no?

Psychologists and therapists have different specialties too, for mental differences. This is generally considered a good thing.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#33

Post by wakamoleguy »

nyanmatt wrote: post #27

I don’t see how. Have you ever tried calling one of these lines in a suicide emergency? Things I’ve learned in California: - an ambulance will not be dispatched unless you physically witness someone trying to kill themselves - otherwise, they send the police - the police arrive without training and severely escalate the situation - the person having an emergency will be taken into custody and stripped of rights until…

And yet the data shows that they did decline. I'm sure they could be much better, and the response will vary from state to state.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#34

Post by RIMR »

Alupis wrote: post #7
ceejayoz wrote: post #5

About a year ago: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/trump-shuts-down-lg... > The Trump administration on Thursday afternoon officially terminated the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ Youth Specialized Services program, which gave callers under age 25 the option to speak with LGBTQ-trained counselors. As with the USAID cuts, this killed people.

[flagged]

Look, I get that you are approaching this in good faith, assuming that they cut these specialists because it was redundant and inefficient.

If this were 10 years ago, this would be an understandable assumption, but today there is absolutely zero reason to reach this conclusion.

The words of our own elected representatives make it very clear why these specialists were cut: because of hatred for the LGBTQ+ community.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#35

Post by fontain »

nyanmatt wrote: post #27

I don’t see how. Have you ever tried calling one of these lines in a suicide emergency? Things I’ve learned in California: - an ambulance will not be dispatched unless you physically witness someone trying to kill themselves - otherwise, they send the police - the police arrive without training and severely escalate the situation - the person having an emergency will be taken into custody and stripped of rights until…

They're crisis services, not emergency services. Anyone who is an immediate danger to themselves or others needs to be attended to by the first available emergency services. The attending services should be trained to deescalate, definitely, but I don't think this is an indictment of the crisis lines themselves. Less than 1% of calls to the crisis line result in any sort of emergency service dispatch.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#36

Post by dmoy »

mondomondo wrote: post #19
marojejian wrote: post #2

gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/science/988-youth-suicide... I bet there is so much more we could do to reduce suicides, which are a massively big problem. I wish we paid as much attention to suicide as we do to very rare mass shootings, which kill a tiny fraction of the people.

[flagged]

I mean... important by what metric?

Active shootings in the US kill like 100 people a year (as of 2024 I guess: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/reports-and-publications...)

Suicides is more like 50,000/yr

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#37

Post by hirvi74 »

marojejian wrote: post #2

gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/science/988-youth-suicide... I bet there is so much more we could do to reduce suicides, which are a massively big problem. I wish we paid as much attention to suicide as we do to very rare mass shootings, which kill a tiny fraction of the people.

> I bet there is so much more we could do to reduce suicides

I am absolutely certain that is the case, however, society operates with such demands from individuals that a majority of necessary changes would be adamantly fought against by those which stand to benefit from the suffering.

Having been through the whole mental health treatment gamut in the USA, I am convinced the only goal of the system is to patch people up just enough that they can be churned back into the capitalist machine. What makes things even sicker, is that one's health insurance is often tied to their employment, so in order to receive basically any treatment, one is typically required to be employed and working.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#38

Post by nkrisc »

Alupis wrote: post #7
ceejayoz wrote: post #5

About a year ago: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/trump-shuts-down-lg... > The Trump administration on Thursday afternoon officially terminated the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ Youth Specialized Services program, which gave callers under age 25 the option to speak with LGBTQ-trained counselors. As with the USAID cuts, this killed people.

[flagged]

> There doesn't need to be a specialist for every group, or worse - some groups.

Why? The struggles different groups generally face are not the same. For a hotline for veterans, wouldn't it make sense to have counselors who are either veterans themselves or have worked extensively with veterans and their specific patterns of issues?

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#39

Post by chasd00 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #16
pfannkuchen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pediatricians and gynecologists Those are physical differences. Which isn’t to say that you’re wrong, but we could easily have different things for physical differences and not for mental differences. Should we have different prisons for gays? Same logic, no?

> Those are physical differences. Good; we agree differences in a patient/customer may require special training/handling. > Should we have different prisons for gays? Again, this wasn't a different hotline. Just a phone tree option. I suspect prisons, at times, have to manage things specific to gay inmates. Seems like it could cause roommate situations to be accounted for, as an example.

> I suspect prisons, at times, have to manage things specific to gay inmates.

doubtful. There's no customer service in prison nor the ability to speak with the manager.

Re: Youth Suicides Declined After Creation of National Hotline

#40

Post by nkrisc »

pfannkuchen wrote: post #13
ceejayoz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that logic, pediatricians and gynecologists shouldn't exist. > A national hotline that can handle anyone is clearly the right way. Absolutely. That describes this setup. You call the number. You get help. Sometimes that means a person trained in, say, talking to rape victims. (If you go to the ER, they'll have a nurse trained in it too!) Per the article: "Also known as the 'Press 3 option,' the program gave 988 ca…

> pediatricians and gynecologists Those are physical differences. Which isn’t to say that you’re wrong, but we could easily have different things for physical differences and not for mental differences. Should we have different prisons for gays? Same logic, no?

You're right, maybe we should have the same counselors handling calls from 13 year olds girls and veterans, after all, what's the difference?
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