Having an option to talk to someone when you're alone and having trouble getting out of your own head is a great option. If you don't know what to do and you only see death as the option, having someone give you options seems like a good thing to have available at a relatively low cost.

I don't think anyone is expecting this to "solve suicide" but it sure as hell beats the alternative of... :checks notes: nothing?

Calling a therapist is similar to a "hotline" but you need to have a therapist first, which is a pain in the ass. Making that easier would be a good concrete second step (which a hotline can also help with!)

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giantg2 2 days ago | parent [-]

"sure as hell beats the alternative of... :checks notes: nothing?"

There seem to be many things that we could do, like addressing suicide as a social contagion including in media portrayal, providing better substance abuse and mental health treatment options, etc. A hotline is like a bandaid - its not going to fix the underlying societal issues like disconnection, lack of community, lack of opportunity/hope, social media, etc.

	▲	sailfast 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Disconnection, lack of community / opportunity / hope and social media are all major societal issues that (in my opinion) are not going to be solved by any sort of single government or charity. Making progress on that takes shifting norms / moving the overton window on depression and addiction, and overriding a lot of human nature (we like easy, we like saccharine, etc). Definitely open to whatever concrete ideas you have that would fix those things, especially if they don't require a nation's whole GDP.
	▲	yladiz 2 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		What’s your point? Okay, the hotline is a bandage, but that’s entirely the point, you use it when you’re feeling suicidal and you need to talk to someone. You don’t use it to fix structural issues in your life that lead to you feeling like that.
	▲	redsocksfan45 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
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