To prevent suicide, give direct, sustained help
- I cannot work because of my health
- I don’t have enough food
- I don’t have adequate shelter
- I live in pain every day
- I don’t have the medicine to cure my health
- I have asked for help for more than five years
- Other people help my abuser find me and contact me
- I wish I were dead
- My desire to kill myself has been increasing
Your #SuicidePrevention does not cure me
I can’t use a hashtag to fix my health.
Your suicide hotline does not improve my life
I can’t eat a phone call.
No scientific study has found any evidence that your hashtag or hotline reduces suicide rates
Your anecdotes are irrelevant. No credible study has found evidence that a suicide hotline reduces the overall suicide rate. In fact, some scientific studies have found that suicide hotlines increase the suicide rate.
In either case, spending money on food suicide hotlines means not spending money on directly helping people. Not spending money to directly help people is an action of omission that kills people.
If you really want to prevent suicide, you must help change the problems that lead to suicide.
Tell the truth about suicide prevention
- Do something useful: donate.
- Do something useful: tell other people to donate.
- Stop harming people by spreading lies about suicide hotlines.
