The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline staffs the national suicide hotline (1-800-273-TALK) and now has teamed up with Facebook, the world’s largest social network, to offer online crisis services to certain Facebook members.
I say “certain” Facebook members, because you can’t just log onto Facebook and seek out this free service. You first have to actually publicly post a comment somewhere — like on your wall — that you’re suicidal. Then you have to wait for a concerned friend or family member to read your post, click on the “Report” link, and report it to Facebook. Then, a Facebook staffer looks at the report and, if it meets its suicide criteria, will send the original Facebook user an email.
In this email from Facebook, the user will find a reminder about the national suicide hotline. But this special email also contains something you won’t find on the Facebook website, nor the website of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline — a link to chat immediately online with a volunteer crisis counselor.
Facebook is providing the financial support for this new service, so not surprisingly it wants to limit its use. That’s a shame, because with the resources of a company like Facebook, they should make this sort of suicidal crisis chat service available to any of their users — without them first having to publicly come out and post about their suicidal intent.
This a great new resource and we commend both Facebook and the Lifeline for providing it as an option to their users. But the new service has a dark side as well…
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I would think that a friend would call 9-1-1, call the friend who posted the suicidal update, call a family member or friend who could get to the suicidal friend quickly…any of these would be more likely than someone reporting the post to facebook. I can’t see anyone I know clicking on the “report” link and then walking away from the situation. In fact, that would really bother me.
It’s a good idea that Facebook are establishing this service, but sadly I cannot envisage it helping those who are truly hell bent on ending their lives. My friend who sadly killed himself little over 2 years ago, only put in his final status update that he couldn’t sleep. There were no other warning signs.
Standard crisis counselling available to anyone through the chat facility would be better. I cannot count the number of times I have logged on to Facebook in a state of severe depression and felt alone when none of my close friends are available to chat.
I think that this will make a lot of people feel like their privacy is being violated and nobody wants to feel like something is being forced on them. I think that this will make people feel attacked and criticized. I don’t know if I think that this is a good idea.
What a waste of time and money. Anybody that is SERIOUS about killing themselves is not going to announce it on Facebook and risk being committed. Even if someone did post it, the procedure is so cumbersome that by the time the email was received, either they’d be over it or dead.