Why do you feel that way? I don’t have any context on your worldview and don’t really understand that meme. What does suicide prevention copypasta actually do, what does it hope to accomplish, is there any quantitative study on the efficacy, and do people even want data as opposed to a feeling?
It's part of the guidelines put together for the media based on studies for reporting about suicide to include resources.
> Provide information on warning signs of suicide risk as well as hotline and treatment resources. At a minimum, include the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Crisis Text Line (listed below) or local crisis phone numbers.
Serious answer: suicidal ideation is MUCH more common than almost anyone realizes, and it correlates with news about other suicides more than we'd like to admit. Making sure that people who would be otherwise encouraged in that direction have access to help at the sites doing the inducement is mostly just common sense.
Can I flip this around? Why did you feel compelled to post that, in particular the last clause ("data as opposed to a feeling") which seems surprisingly dismissive of a position on a subject that by your own admission you lack expertise with?
I'll be honest: that looks like anti-woke virtue signalling if I ever saw it.
Is it adequate, does it cover the use case of people that don’t want to be here anymore?
Does the common sense have any peer reviewed backing? (I previously wrote quantitative, which I would like to evaluate in the peer reviewed study)
If my question provided no introspection for you, do you really think asking me my own question provided introspection for me? I am still left curious. Still lacking the context, I think the current approach is feelings based, emotion, based on heavy reactive assumptions that don’t address anything, but I don't actually know.
Regarding the phrasing, I’m actually trying not to come across with my actual pretty negative opinions of this because I’m hoping someone will actually explain the cause and effect before I make those conclusions known.
Explain the common sense, if the answer is “actually only a small sliver of some suicide is adequately addressed by simply talking about and we have no study and no other information about the other suicides” then just say that. I would be a lot more content if people were just able to say that or cite some other stat. As opposed to copypasta and group think.
I’m not necessarily convinced that “help” is the right word for all use cases, and think people just don't want to honestly talk about. So lets just start with the basics of basics, why are we doing this.
> If my question provided no introspection for you
This is more taunting hyperbole. It doesn't leave me with the impression that you want to take this seriously, and more that you want to position yourself in yet another culture war skirmish.
It was a spontaneous thought that came to mind when I saw this post. I am not aware of any such research but know that search engines do it automatically and people do on Reddit posts that are related to this topic.
"It is difficult to gather strict evidence about the effectiveness of suicide prevention hotlines, but Dr. Madelyn Gould of Columbia University found that of Lifeline callers:
12% of suicidal callers said that talking to someone at Lifeline prevented them from harming or killing themselves
Almost 50% followed through with a counselor's referral to seek emergency services or contacted mental health services
About 80% said that Lifeline had something to do with keeping them alive"
Not a ton, but initial studies do seem to suggest they push people from "executing on a plan with the means to do so" to not. Some recent meta-analysis I read seemed to indicate there needs to be more research done, but it's not something you really want to A/B test.
If I don’t ask this well, please be kind. Are you saying there is evidence hotlines back people off of dangerous levels of intent, or that there is evidence they play some role in dismantling the means—convincing to remove weapons and pills, for example, so that the strong suicidal desire is less likely to lead to action? Either way it’s good news.
From my initial readings I _believe_ it's the backing out of intent. "Making action plans" and "provision of referrals" has also been mentioned so it could be both! I'm only looking at the lit reviews at the moment though.
In my experience, the "talking off the ledge" was always the most important part in the moment. I found that the follow up from someone who knows what they're doing helped keep me away from the ledge too.
I feel like a lot more work could be done in this area, but I'm not in psych and I wouldn't know where to contribute.
But we don't know if it does. It sounds like a kind of thing that does almost nothing on its own and becomes irrelevant the moment a halfway decent solution is found.
You're right that if we do find something that makes it irrelevant, it won't be needed. Let's not make perfect the enemy of good here though - it's a mild preventative that actually may help someone at risk. There have been studies that show that even _reporting_ on suicide can cause an uptick of rates without the proper precautions. If it doesn't impact you, great. If it helps pull someone else off the edge though, it's worth it.
Why are you skeptical? Having the resources prominent immediately after someone is thinking about suicide based on external stimulus seems like it could help someone, and even if it only helps one person, that seems like it would be worth it to me.
Frankly I'm skeptical that suicide hotlines are an effective tool, and then on top of that it would have to be the case that sticking the link underneath an article makes people more likely to call it and benefit from it.
What harm would it do to post some Bible passages under such posts? That might help someone. If we’re just doing everything that might help and wouldn’t seem to hurt.
