True and HORRIFYING account about the suicide crisis "hotline"

[Coventina]

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Let me start by assuring everyone the teenager in question is SAFE and getting the help she desperately needs
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My sister-in-law and I (and other family members) are mentors / friends of three teenage siblings that have had an extremely dysfunctional home.
All thee of them struggle with mental health issues because of their toxic, hate-filled father (no mother in the picture).

Anyway, the oldest girl called my SIL to say that she had just called the suicide prevention hotline because she couldn't stop thinking about killing herself.

After the talk with what she thought was a person, is when she called my SIL.
It became pretty obvious that what was answering the crisis line was a chat box.

It started by asking her if she had a therapist she could contact.
(Isn't that what the hotline is for? People who need immediate assistance? Not an appointment a week from now?)

Then, it started telling her all the reasons why she should want to live:

Treasured friends! (She has no peer group friends, thanks to her asshole dad)
Romantic partners (See above)
Work can bring a grand feeling of satisfaction! (She does not have a job)


I mean, it was really bad for her, but honestly, that sucks for ANYBODY who is actually at a point where they're going to call a stranger about killing themselves!!!


I heard that Trump was cutting the budget for the suicide hotline, I guess it's already happened.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. From personal experience, you have no idea how close a caller is

to attaining their ambition to die. And you try minute-by-minute to negotiate with that caller.

I was an overnight operator for a generic answering service. Doctors, Attorneys, Long-Distance Telephone service, commercial rental properties, etc. Essentially all I had to do was get the name of the caller and get the right phone number.

One night, I got a caller for a psychiatrist and I thought it was just to make or cancel an appointment. No. He wanted to speak with the doctor NOW. It was 4:00 a.m. I was hesitant, but I woke the doctor and patched the caller through to him. And hung up.

The same caller called me back in 5 minutes, to thank me for my courtesy, and now he was going to kill himself. I wasn't prepared for that situation. So I tried to keep him on the line as long as possible, told him that I couldn't understand why. He was the first decent person who had called all night and I wanted to talk to him longer. After 10 minutes, he had enough and hung up. I immediately called his doctor and told him that his patient was about to kill himself. And the doctor blew me (and the caller) off, saying he was an ex-patient. A combination of panic and infuriation compelled me to tell the doctor that if someone didn't act immediately, the caller was literally going to be an ex-patient. I didn't have time to call the owner of the answering service as I saw potential liability if I didn't get help somewhere else.

I called 9-1-1 and told them to contact the local police. I at least had the caller's name and phone number. The Police traced the number and got to the caller's home before he died. I called later in the day as a follow-up, to be informed that the caller was in the Psych Ward of the local hospital and that he was being treated.

And my take-away from this is if someone tells you s/he is going to kill her/himself, BELIEVE IT.

[Coventina]

2. Yes, I almost feel no hotline at all would be better than a chat bot.

To be fed a bunch of AI slop when you are inches from ending your life, very well could be the trigger, so to speak.

"No real people want to talk with me, they're just have a machine spit nonsense at me. I guess I really am worth nothing....."

[Irish_Dem]

5. Wow NH, you did a fabulous job with crisis management on this call.

You did exactly what a trained professional would have done.
Including calling the police and sending them to the person's home.

You saved that person's life.

It is what the lazy incompetent psychiatrist should have done.

[synni]

3. Suicide hotlines were already horrible, before Trump

YouTube has several nightmare stories about people who called suicide hotlines. The worst cases were people who ended up arrested, beaten, or even killed by the police.

Me, I called a hotline, and the woman told me she could only talk to me for 5 minutes. I told her that I hoped she would call 911 someday, and have the same thing said to her.

I called my former clinic's hotline, only to be told to wait to talk to my therapist during my regular appointment...3 days later.

The old joke of calling a suicide hotline, only to be put on hold? It's no joke.

And Trump is only going to make things worse--as usual.

[Intractable]

4. I would think that the most important characteristic of a suicide hotline operator is the ability to listen.

It's literally a call for help. They need to know they are being heard.

An AI spewing platitudes would probably seem condescending to the caller.

[Jedi Guy]

6. Just what people in crisis need to hear, the voice of something that can never understand how painful life can be.

AI might soon reach the point where it can pass the Turing Test in a spoken conversation (or unreleased AI might already be there), but even so this is not an appropriate application, full stop.

I have nothing but respect for the people who answer these calls. It takes an uncommon level of empathy to help people in crisis and a frankly heroic sense of purpose. They know going in that there will be some they'll lose to the darkness. It takes heart and compassion, something no AI can bring to the table.

Just one more instance of Trump's callous disregard and casual cruelty. Just one more for the pile.