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Helpline: Suicide Prevention at a Suicide Site
Author(s) -
Glatt Kenneth M.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.1987.tb00070.x
Subject(s) - helpline , bridge (graph theory) , phone , medical emergency , hotline , mental health , suicide prevention , poison control , psychology , medicine , psychiatry , engineering , telecommunications , emergency medicine , philosophy , linguistics
In an effort to reduce the number of suicides from the Mid‐Hutson Bridge in Poughkeepsie, New York, the Dutchess County Department of Mental Hygiene and the New York State Bridge Authority jointly established a suicide prevention phone on the bridge, which is directly connected to a 24‐hour psychiatric emergency service. This program is the first known one in which a dedicated suicide prevention helpline has been installed at a site of known suicides and linked with a mental health service. After 2 years of operation, the phone has been used 30 times; the data suggest that most would‐be jumpers are ambivalent enough about dying that they will reach out for help/contact if the opportunity exists, and, as a consequence, can be saved.