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A suicide hotline is not a general mental health therapy. It was one function -- to prevent the caller from committing suicide in the immediate future. It was

by gowld 5y ago

A suicide hotline is not a general mental health therapy. It was one function -- to prevent the caller from committing suicide in the immediate future. It was successful. You can't test the effectiveness of a suicide prevention with a dry run. Fire drills don't put out fires either. Also, you essentially admityed that you were making a false call. That's not going to get a great reply. You shouldn't call 911 to test response time either.

vlunkr 5y ago
Exactly, and I'm sure they want to keep their lines open for the real emergencies.
- aerovistae 5y ago
  My point is that it can be hard to tell a real emergency from a non-real one. Not everyone is going to be sobbing and shouting. Some may sound calm and alright. If you've known someone who committed suicide, you probably know that there isn't always a flashing warning sign the day of. There is sometimes, but it's not reliable. I think it's important for a hotline to treat all calls equally.
mjevans 5y ago
My impression differs. The caller left the experience feeling more disheartened and unsupported. Logically that seems like they were at an _increased risk of suicide_ relative to when they called.
- watwut 5y ago
  He literally answered "no, I am not suicidal" to the "are you suicidal" question. And in fact, he did not became suicidal after. This was not failure of suicide hotline. This was them recognizing he is misusing the service.
  - R0b0t1 5y ago
    If you answer yes they are liable to send someone to kidnap you, so people are trained to not answer yes.
    - watwut 5y ago
      Expectation for suicide hotline is not "make whoever is sad and calls happy". It is to prevent suicides. He called suicide horline. He was not suicidal at all, he said it to then and to us. He was not trained away from saying it. The question did not even came straight away. If he is afraid to admit suicidal thought for rational reasons, as you say, rational act is to not call at all. Way more likely explanation is that they realized he is not suicidal, then asked to confirm and end ended that all.

by gowld 5y ago

vlunkr 5y ago

Exactly, and I'm sure they want to keep their lines open for the real emergencies.

aerovistae 5y ago
My point is that it can be hard to tell a real emergency from a non-real one. Not everyone is going to be sobbing and shouting. Some may sound calm and alright. If you've known someone who committed suicide, you probably know that there isn't always a flashing warning sign the day of. There is sometimes, but it's not reliable. I think it's important for a hotline to treat all calls equally.

mjevans 5y ago

My impression differs. The caller left the experience feeling more disheartened and unsupported. Logically that seems like they were at an _increased risk of suicide_ relative to when they called.

watwut 5y ago
He literally answered "no, I am not suicidal" to the "are you suicidal" question. And in fact, he did not became suicidal after. This was not failure of suicide hotline. This was them recognizing he is misusing the service.
- R0b0t1 5y ago
  If you answer yes they are liable to send someone to kidnap you, so people are trained to not answer yes.
  - watwut 5y ago
    Expectation for suicide hotline is not "make whoever is sad and calls happy". It is to prevent suicides. He called suicide horline. He was not suicidal at all, he said it to then and to us. He was not trained away from saying it. The question did not even came straight away. If he is afraid to admit suicidal thought for rational reasons, as you say, rational act is to not call at all. Way more likely explanation is that they realized he is not suicidal, then asked to confirm and end ended that all.