[jonex]

The condition, according to the article, was not having taken pills and being dying, but "if a call-attendant believed a person might be at “imminent risk” of taking their own life in the next few hours, days, or week".

This is weak enough that it will happen many times for people who are not in a significant risk, but for whom such an intervention can be seriously detrimental to their life. Note that suicidal thoughts are most of the time just thoughts and not acted upon.

If nothing else, it should be made clear to the person calling what risks they are taking. Many people might believe that they have confidentiality and that they can talk freely without risk of consequence.

[1827163]

Yes, I was expecting this hotline to do more harm than good. It's not just for people who have problems themselves, it's also a hotline to report those who they care about. It's basically snitching on people because of their thoughts. It's a further entrenchment of our "police state".

Many times ordinary people have suicidal thoughts and don't carry out it at all. Subjecting those people to coercive treatments would be extremely harmful as doing so will further traumatize them. And it's also an affront to individual liberty, including the freedom to have negative thoughts. Sometimes such thoughts, if not interfered with by a meddling "nanny state", are an opportunity for growth and recovery.

And this hotline can also be used as yet another means of coercive control by a partner with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or other personality disorders. Where the partner can threaten to report the victim as suicidal or mentally unstable. Yes that happens, and it's surprisingly common. That's why here in the UK we passed laws against coercive control.

[EdwardDiego]

So, if they didn't intervene, and the caller did indeed commit suicide the next day, you're all good with that lack of intervention?

[charlieyu1]

On the other hand, there are people who need this service are not using it because of fear of getting hospitalised involuntarily.

[EdwardDiego]

Yeah, their fear is largely unfounded. Sadly, we've swung too far to the other extreme on involuntary treatment.

[omniglottal]

"Largely" unfounded doesn't make it unfounded. It's founded, and relevant, and either will be addressed by people acknowledging its genuine existential nature as a threat or, following your baseless dismissal, people will die.

[sokoloff]

Yes. IMO, we have to be willing to accept errors of both types (under-intervention and over-intervention) in order to design a system that is the most helpful overall.

Some people who call a suicide prevention hotline will go on to kill themself. That by itself is not evidence of a flaw in the hotline or its policies.