Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope, or at risk of suicide throughout Great Britain and Ireland, often through their telephone helpline. Its name derives from the biblical Parable of the Good Samaritan although the organisation itself is non-religious.
A crisis hotline is a phone number people can call to get immediate emergency telephone counseling, usually by trained volunteers. The first such service was founded in England in 1951 and such hotlines have existed in most major cities of the English speaking world at least since the mid-1970s. Initially set up to help those contemplating suicide, many have expanded their mandate to deal more generally with emotional crises. Similar hotlines operate to help people in other circumstances, including rape, bullying, self-harm, runaway children, human trafficking, and people who identify as LGBT or intersex. Despite crisis hotlines being common, their effectiveness in reducing suicides is unclear.
Nightline is the name given to various confidential and anonymous overnight listening, emotional support, information, and supplies services, run by students for students at universities around the world. Individual Nightlines are autonomous organisations, but are affiliated to the Nightline Association, which is an umbrella organisation founded to facilitate cooperation between Nightlines in the UK and Ireland.
Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public health problem that can have long-lasting effects on individuals, families, and communities. The good news is that suicide is preventable. Preventing suicide requires strategies at all levels of society. This includes prevention and protective strategies for individuals, families, and communities. Everyone can help prevent suicide by learning the warning signs, promoting prevention and resilience, and a committing to social change.
Telephone counseling refers to any type of psychological service performed over the telephone. Telephone counseling ranges from individual, couple or group psychotherapy with a professional therapist to psychological first aid provided by para-professional counselors. In-person therapists often advise clients to make use of telephone crisis counseling to provide the client with an avenue to obtain support outside of therapy if they cannot be reached in an emergency or at the conclusion of a therapeutic relationship.
Suicide intervention is a direct effort to prevent a person or persons from attempting to take their own life or lives intentionally.
The Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong (SBHK) is a non-government organisation. It is a local voluntary agency which provides counselling services to people with suicidal tendencies or behaviour. This organisation was the first of its kind in Asia.
A suicide crisis, suicidal crisis or potential suicide is a situation in which a person is attempting to kill themself or is seriously contemplating or planning to do so. It is considered by public safety authorities, medical practice, and emergency services to be a medical emergency, requiring immediate suicide intervention and emergency medical treatment. Suicidal presentations occur when an individual faces an emotional, physical, or social problem they feel they cannot overcome and considers suicide to be a solution. Clinicians usually attempt to re-frame suicidal crises, point out that suicide is not a solution and help the individual identify and solve or tolerate the problems.
Maytree is a respite centre, located in the London Borough of Islington, England, for people who are feeling suicidal. It is a charitable organisation that opened in October 2002. It is located in a terraced house in north London, and provides a one-off stay of five days and four nights for up to four guests at a time. Contact is generally severed following a stay, although help is provided for guests regarding their long-term wellbeing after Maytree.
Mental distress is a term used, by some mental health practitioners and users of mental health services, to describe a range of symptoms and experiences of a person's internal life that are commonly held to be troubling, confusing or out of the ordinary. Mental distress can potentially lead to a change of behavior, affect a person's emotions in a negative way, and affect their relationships with the people around them.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 160 crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. The caller is routed to their nearest crisis center to receive immediate counseling and local mental health referrals. The lifeline supports people who call for themselves or someone they care about. In July 2020, the FCC finalized an order to direct telecommunication carriers to implement 9-8-8 as the new toll-free nationwide telephone number for the hotline by July 16, 2022.
Volunteer Emotional Support Helplines (VESH) is a planned combined international network of telephone counseling services being formed by the three largest international services. In their roles of emotional support service networks, they have agreed to develop a more effective and robust international interface.
The Samaritans Hong Kong operates a free 24-hour multilingual suicide prevention hotline in Hong Kong. [It] is a non-religious charity that provides confidential emotional support to all people, irrespective of race, creed, age or status, who are despairing or suicidal." The organisation is registered as a charity in Hong Kong, and governed by its unpaid volunteers.
Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) is a non denominational, non-profit suicide prevention centre. Since its establishment in 1969, SOS has developed into a professionally run and managed organisation. It adopts a holistic approach to suicide, focussing on suicide prevention, intervention and postvention.
Suicide is a significant national social issue in the United Kingdom. In 2019 there were 5,691 registered deaths by suicide in England and Wales, equating to an average of 18 suicides per day in the country. Suicide is the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the country.
The Vandrevala Foundation is an NGO established by Cyrus Vandrevala and Priya Vandrevala in 2008. In 2009, it established the "Mental Health - India" initiative to raise awareness for and provide services to emotionally distressed individuals. Priya Vandrevala is the estranged daughter of Niranjan Hiranandani; father and daughter are fighting several cases in court against each other.
Samaritans Radar was a Twitter-based service created by the digital advertising agency Jam for the British emotional support charity Samaritans. It was intended as a way to inform users when their Twitter contacts were potentially in need of emotional support. The app scanned Twitter for key phrases such as "help me", "hate myself", mentions of being depressed or needing someone to talk to and then sent an email to that user's friends. Samaritans suspended the Radar service following widespread criticism and a petition asking the charity to discontinue the service.
7 Cups is a website which provides online therapy and free support to people experiencing emotional distress by connecting them with trained listeners. The listener, trained in active listening, interacts with the person seeking help via an anonymous and confidential chat. Members must be 13 to 17 on the teenage side and 18+ for the adult side. Listeners must be 15 or over.
In 2017, the suicide rate in Hong Kong was around 12 deaths per 100,000 people and ranked 32 in the world standing, which was its lowest rate in four years. The suicide rate for males was nearly double that for females, as it was 16.2 deaths per 100,000 males, and 8.8 deaths per 100,000 females. Although it has decreased slightly compared to previous years, for those aged 19 or younger it has risen by 50%. The Samaritans Hong Kong charity has described the issues as worthy of attention.
