Many people at risk of suicide do not actively seek help. Suicide prevention efforts need to involve the general public to provide appropriate support to those in need. We aimed to assess the intention to help people at risk and associated factors using a national representative sample. 

Main findings: 

(a) The prevalence of high intentions to help people at risk of suicide was 56.5%. 

(b) Helping intentions did not differ by sex, educational level, employment status, marital status, or mental health status. 

(c) Those with high helping intentions were younger, less likely to have misconceptions about suicide or agree that suicide is a personal choice, and more likely to believe that suicide is preventable and support suicide prevention measures.

Our study highlighted that suicide prevention education programs aimed to enhance helping intentions may usefully target debunking misconceptions about suicide and cultivating positive attitudes toward suicide prevention.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2023.2280231 

Brief interventions are associated with reduced repeated suicide attempts. Assessing the acceptability of brief interventions is critical. We interviewed 14 participants who presented to hospitals with self-harm to explore their perceptions towards the Chinese version of the volitional help sheet (VHS-C), which encourages people to link a critical situation with an appropriate response.

Main findings:
(a) The intended goal of the VHS-C is understandable, but having verbal instructions would also help.
(b) Most participants preferred the web-based to the paper-based VHS-C
(c) Reasons why they felt the VHS-C was helpful (e.g. relatable contents, useful coping strategies and appropriate instructions that made them feel understood)
(d) Reasons why they felt the VHS-C was unhelpful (e.g., being not specific enough, not useful during the crisis and triggering negative emotional responses)

Our data showed that the contents of the VHS-C were acceptable for people who presented to hospitals with self-harm and the VHS-C may be more helpful before individuals encounter suicidal thoughts than when they have an ongoing crisis.

https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2023.78

Crisis helplines provide important support for vulnerable individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may also impact the helplines. We conducted interviews with 14 hotline workers to explore the challenges that the pandemic brought to Taiwan’s national suicide prevention hotline and the hotline’s responses.

We found that the pandemic posed two new challenges to the hotline:
(a) potential service interruption
(b) the adjustment of perceived role among hotline workers.

The hotline’s well-formulated response plan helped it sustain its services during the pandemic, although the workers also experienced stress and frustration resulting from role ambiguity. Our data highlighted the hotline workers’ need for accurate COVID-19 information, relevant training, and timely support.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07481187.2023.2186535