Suicide prevention is focusing on the wrong thing

[willitpass]

The vast majority of suicide prevention efforts are almost if not completely focused on preventing the act of suicide itself. The warning signs, the hotlines, the steps to take… They are all focused on preventing someone who is already suicidal and often times so suicidal they are preparing to attempt from going through with the act itself. Sometimes they leave it at that, sometimes they go on to discuss treatment options after. But why is society as a whole putting so much attention on the crisis point and ignoring what gets someone into such a state in the first place? If you want to prevent a house fire you take steps to keep your house from catching on fire in the first place. The steps for what to do if your house actually does catch fire are in case all else fails, they are not the first line of defense. So if people are so worried about preventing suicide, why are they so god damned focused on putting out a fire that is already blazing and trying to do damage control from there rather than putting more effort into preventing people from becoming suicidal in the first place? It's a hell of a lot easier to fix many problems that lead to suicide before they reach a crisis point than after. Financial assistance, housing, actual proper antibullying efforts, accesible therapy and other preventative mental health care resources, job assistance programs, the list of ways to prevent a suicidal crisis goes on. Sure, efforts are being made in these areas, but the more focus that gets put on the current suicide prevention programs, the more time and money and resources are being taken away from preventing the crisis in the first place. People do not just become suicidal overnight. It is often a culmination of weeks, months, years of problems building up. If you want to prevent a house from burning to the ground, do not wait until it is already on fire to do something. Work to stop it from catching fire in the first place.

 

[fvckfamily]

A grande maioria dos esforços de prevenção ao suicídio são quase, se não completamente, focados em prevenir o ato do suicídio em si. Os sinais de alerta, as linhas diretas, as medidas a serem tomadas... Todos eles são focados em evitar que alguém que já é suicida e muitas vezes tão suicida que está se preparando para tentar, passe pelo ato em si. Às vezes eles deixam por isso mesmo, às vezes eles discutem opções de tratamento depois. Mas por que a sociedade como um todo está dando tanta atenção ao ponto de crise e ignorando o que leva alguém a tal estado em primeiro lugar? Se você quer evitar um incêndio em casa, você toma medidas para evitar que sua casa pegue fogo em primeiro lugar. As etapas para o que fazer se sua casa realmente pegar fogo são no caso de tudo o mais falhar, elas não são a primeira linha de defesa. Então, se as pessoas estão tão preocupadas em prevenir o suicídio, por que elas estão tão focadas em apagar um incêndio que já está queimando e tentar fazer o controle de danos a partir daí, em vez de se esforçarem mais para evitar que as pessoas se tornem suicidas em primeiro lugar? É muito mais fácil consertar muitos problemas que levam ao suicídio antes que eles cheguem a um ponto crítico do que depois. Assistência financeira, moradia, esforços antibullying adequados, terapia acessível e outros recursos de saúde mental preventiva, programas de assistência ao emprego, a lista de maneiras de prevenir uma crise suicida continua. Claro, esforços estão sendo feitos nessas áreas, mas quanto mais foco é colocado nos programas atuais de prevenção ao suicídio, mais tempo, dinheiro e recursos estão sendo tirados da prevenção da crise em primeiro lugar. As pessoas não se tornam suicidas da noite para o dia. Muitas vezes é o culminar de semanas, meses, anos de problemas se acumulando. Se você quer evitar que uma casa queime até o chão, não espere até que ela já esteja pegando fogo para fazer algo. Trabalhe para impedir que ela pegue fogo em primeiro lugar.

Concordo plenamente, eles se concentram em consertar as coisas depois que a merda é feita, não em evitar que aconteça, porque uma vez que a merda é feita, não há como voltar atrás.

 

[Just someone]

I agree with your sentiment but if I am being optimistic then a lot of people are raising their voices for better quality of life and at the same time there are more discussion and more awareness about the issue which also make people more open up about their struggle. More and more people are undergoing therapy for their mental health and more and more resources are being available to public.
On the negatives, the suicide hotlines or resources online are not really good. Personally never called on suicide hotlines but I have heard stories about them just never picking up or calling police. Many government around the world have made the act of suicide illegal and if caught can land you in jail or a hefty fine, what about prevention or actually helping? Even the resources like therapy are very expensive and not covered by most insurance. Not to mention the negative stigma around suicidal people, I assume in job market you are more likely to get rejected which in turn would make it more harder to get out of the suicidal mindset. If someone is send to psych ward jobs might lay off the employee or might try to find ways to get rid of that employee. In offices or schools there is little to no emphasis on mental health. Most conservative family think being suicidal is not really a serious issue.
Overall the world is trying to change but the negative outweighs the positive by a large margin.

 

[willitpass]

I agree with your sentiment but if I am being optimistic then a lot of people are raising their voices for better quality of life and at the same time there are more discussion and more awareness about the issue which also make people more open up about their struggle. More and more people are undergoing therapy for their mental health and more and more resources are being available to public.
On the negatives, the suicide hotlines or resources online are not really good. Personally never called on suicide hotlines but I have heard stories about them just never picking up or calling police. Many government around the world have made the act of suicide illegal and if caught can land you in jail or a hefty fine, what about prevention or actually helping? Even the resources like therapy are very expensive and not covered by most insurance. Not to mention the negative stigma around suicidal people, I assume in job market you are more likely to get rejected which in turn would make it more harder to get out of the suicidal mindset. If someone is send to psych ward jobs might lay off the employee or might try to find ways to get rid of that employee. In offices or schools there is little to no emphasis on mental health. Most conservative family think being suicidal is not really a serious issue.
Overall the world is trying to change but the negative outweighs the positive by a large margin.

I can personally attest to how use hotlines are and how traumatic and ineffective psych wards are. And both of those are methods of current suicide prevention focused on attempting to fix the problem after it has already boiled over into crisis mode. That's the problem. Anything aimed at attempting to fix a suicidal crisis is going to be a lot more difficult and traumatic than putting the focus on preventing the crisis from occurring in the first place. Therapy is unaffordable and difficult to obtain in a lot of situations, so rather than throw all of this money into suicide hotlines, why don't we throw money into improving access to good quality therapy that can help people BEFORE they become suicidal? Why don't we put money into affordable housing and livable wages to help people who need it BEFORE they reach such a state of financial insecurity they think the only way out is death? Why don't schools actually start helping prevent bullying and have true consequences when it does occur BEFORE young kids become suicidal from it. Catching the problem before it becomes a problem should be so much more of a priority. It is so, so much easier to help someone who is not yet in a state of crisis than help someone who is so deep into one they are standing on the edge. Someone who did not become suicidal can have their problems sorted in a much smoother fashion than someone who is now trying to both fix the initial problem and pick up the pieces after their world came crumbling down.

 

[nir]

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Unfortunately, humans are reeeeally bad at working our brains around that. We are good at waiting for consequences and accepting it them as bad, but we are not good at looking at predicted consequences and attempting to avoid them.

If the Titanic swerved last second (causing structural damage and injuries) managing to never hit the iceberg, people would have complained the captain overreacted as the ship was "unsinkable". The measures would have been seen as "drastic" and "unnecessary".

Another example of this is climate change. A lot of people/businesses/governments don't want to do preventative measures because they're expensive, annoying, and also very hard to prove that they 100% were effective if implemented. If you avoid something entirely, it is very hard to prove that it would have happened at all.

Likewise, if we had a society that drastically improved quality of life - universal basic income, housing for all, healthcare for all, etc - I feel like we would see a lot less suicides. But people wouldn't really see it as suicide prevention, because there's no way to peep into an alternate timeline where all those measures weren't put in place, and look and see how much worse people were feeling. Of course, you can say "it's very likely that x, y, and z would happen if we didn't take these measures", but it's hard to prove. And if it's hard to prove, it's hard to implement or get the general public to *want* it implemented, especially if it is expensive and uses a lot of tax dollars.

So people die.

Really makes me angry, but so does a lot of the human condition.

 

[-Link-]

So if people are so worried about preventing suicide, why are they so god damned focused on putting out a fire that is already blazing and trying to do damage control from there rather than putting more effort into preventing people from becoming suicidal in the first place?

People stay away from "time-consuming and challenging" when they see options of "quick and easy," a tendency that results in shortsightedness, be it wilful or subconscious -- this is human nature. This is especially true of people who have the most power among us to make meaningful change -- politicians. And politicians are concerned about polls and elections which prioritize the short-term rather than the long-term, and they are backed by big-money lobbyists who live-and-breathe capitalism which prioritizes maximum returns in minimum time frames.

So, whether it's the general public, or the politicians who govern us, or the big-money corporations who pull all the strings... Everyone is focused on the short-term. It's hardwired into our fundamental way of life and is the reason why general progress is so excruciatingly slow.

How does this relate back to the original topic... It all goes towards the collective's shortsightedness and prioritization of the "right here and now" with quick fixes and wanting to see results tomorrow -- not a year from now, 5 years, 10 years, 25 years from now -- even if those fixes happen in such a way to set us up for even bigger problems in the future.

For the general public, it takes no effort for people to say "Call a suicide hotline!" And it takes relatively little funding to run a national hotline compared to the kind of funding it would take to address the underlying societal problems that contribute to the development of mental illness and suicidality in the first place.

For politicians, "Suicide Prevention" makes for a more emotionally-charged, attention-getting soundbite than "New Initiatives to Prevent Homelessness" or "Increased Funding Announced for Mental Health Initiatives."

And then for big-money corporate lobbyists, they don't have to worry about all the costs associated with those "boring" new initiatives when they can just throw some pennies at a few new suicide hotlines and tell everyone how charitable they are for their efforts in preventing suicide.

That brings the issue full circle: We go back to the general public who listens to the soundbites, being spoon-fed "suicide prevention" as the priority and not bothering to think any deeper on the subject. It's the general public who votes in the politicians, so the politicians follow suit so as to maximize reelection potential. And since big-money corporations are saving lots of money this way, they ensure these politicians stay in power while keeping the general public fixated on quick-fix, low-cost, nice-soundbite "solutions."

And if anyone dares to give a serious look at possible larger-scale initiatives, all that needs to be done is to remind them of what it would cost in taxes:

• General Public: "What about those homeless initiatives or increased mental health funding?"
• Our Political System: "Here's what those things would cost out of your pocket."
• General Public: "Suicide prevention it is!! Call those hotlines, everybody!!"

And then finally, 25 years down the line, everybody wonders why our society is so troubled and why mental illness is so widespread. MAYBE if everyone wasn't so fixated on the "right-here-and-now" and instead considered issues beyond their immediate future, then everyone would be in better shape.

 

[Can’tbearanything]

Yeah I completely agree on all of this. So many things people struggle with at the end of the day are just about being able to access things they basically need to live. I see so much of that even in these threads… people who are finding it unbearable having to work full-time when they are disabled or severely ill… people who can't find work… people in abusive situations that can't leave because the can't support themselves financially… people who can't stand their job… people who are really struggling to keep on top of their responsibilities as a parent when they have major health issues… the list goes on. And then there's a lot of blah blah that goes in politics and general society about how precious life is etc. But then in so many ways we make life a bit of a death trap if you have anything at all going on for you that prevents you from working. And I think seemingly a lot of the time everyone goes around pretending like these problems don't really exist? Like I don't know I think a lot of kids get brought up with this idea that like 'of course everyone manages to find a stable job and a house and a partner idea' which is not really how it goes for a lot of people, sadly.

I really think a lot of problems in our world could be addressed through universal income and universal housing. Plus probably really robust and meaningful attempts to teach people about healthy relationships and healthy self-care habits from a young age. I think people sometimes just assume parents will teach their kids this but they really often don't.

I know a lot of my personal problems could have been addressed with these things in place.

As for suicide prevention and mental health care for people in crisis - I know in my country a lot of this is just a joke. Here we have helplines - but literally all they can do is listen to you and talk to you - barely scratches the surface of a lot of the problems that people face in their life. And from what I hear of psych wards they often just re-traumatise the shit out of people. I have a friend who went in recently who said it was like hell in there… which is ironic considering it's meant to be a care facility for people in emotional crisis!?

It's sad a lot of lives lost due to just ridiculous systems that if you think about them deeply just for a minute clearly wouldn't be able to work well for a lot of people.

 

[Z-A]

Unfortunately the capitalism in our world is built around greed and corruption. If enough people cared about each other's wellbeing, we would already have had this pretty world you described there. So yeah, I'm also hurt by the lack of empathy we have for each other in this world. It's saddening to see it being this way. I have no words.

 

[Darkover]

Suicide prevention is just the lazy option, instead of actually tackling the big issues that cause it. It's a total cop out from society!
I often wonder what will happen, if a perfectly peaceful method emerges that is impossible for government / society to control or restrict? Imagine something you grow in your back garden, that no government can prevent… like cyanide or something but more peaceful.
Then governments would actually have to take the problems seriously and try improve the broken aspects of society and people's lives…
It's a bit like the climate crisis. Society is only now taking it seriously, because they have no choice and are forced to do so.

 

[willitpass]

Unfortunately the capitalism in our world is built around greed and corruption. If enough people cared about each other's wellbeing, we would already have had this pretty world you described there. So yeah, I'm also hurt by the lack of empathy we have for each other in this world. It's saddening to see it being this way. I have no words.

Unfortunately it seems like we've dug ourselves as a society into a hole with mental health that I don't know how or even if we would ever be able to get ourselves out of. Suicide and poor mental health are an ever growing epidemic it seems. And while people are talking about it more, it seems progress isn't being made because, as this whole post says, the focus is on slapping a bandaid on a problem when it becomes too big for people to ignore. The state we have ourselves in with mental health care and socioeconomic factors that contribute to suicide is only worsening. Access to reasonable mental health care and financial and housing assistance are a joke in the US and many other countries. The degree of change that would have to occur in so many aspects to truly make a meaningful change is absolutely massive. And with how money focused and the little care the government has for its own people I doubt they will ever get around to truly trying to fix them. So suicide will become an ever increasing problem and they will continue to throw hotlines around like a magical cure all.

 

[-Link-]

Unfortunately it seems like we've dug ourselves as a society into a hole with mental health that I don't know how or even if we would ever be able to get ourselves out of.

I love that you posted this thread. It's so good to see this being talked about more.

It's about time to start shutting this shit right down and say ENOUGH with the platitudes and bandaids.

Any time the words "suicide prevention" are mentioned anywhere, take opportunity to shove all this stuff down people's throats and keep doing it until they start getting the message.

Reminds me of the media's efforts in getting this forum shut down. As if the existence of a suicide forum is the problem. Lazy. Shortsighted. Self-righteous. Ignorant. I mean, take your pick. Can they start looking at the bigger picture already.

 

[nattys5thtoenail]

The vast majority of suicide prevention efforts are almost if not completely focused on preventing the act of suicide itself. The warning signs, the hotlines, the steps to take… They are all focused on preventing someone who is already suicidal and often times so suicidal they are preparing to attempt from going through with the act itself. Sometimes they leave it at that, sometimes they go on to discuss treatment options after. But why is society as a whole putting so much attention on the crisis point and ignoring what gets someone into such a state in the first place? If you want to prevent a house fire you take steps to keep your house from catching on fire in the first place. The steps for what to do if your house actually does catch fire are in case all else fails, they are not the first line of defense. So if people are so worried about preventing suicide, why are they so god damned focused on putting out a fire that is already blazing and trying to do damage control from there rather than putting more effort into preventing people from becoming suicidal in the first place? It's a hell of a lot easier to fix many problems that lead to suicide before they reach a crisis point than after. Financial assistance, housing, actual proper antibullying efforts, accesible therapy and other preventative mental health care resources, job assistance programs, the list of ways to prevent a suicidal crisis goes on. Sure, efforts are being made in these areas, but the more focus that gets put on the current suicide prevention programs, the more time and money and resources are being taken away from preventing the crisis in the first place. People do not just become suicidal overnight. It is often a culmination of weeks, months, years of problems building up. If you want to prevent a house from burning to the ground, do not wait until it is already on fire to do something. Work to stop it from catching fire in the first place.

Spot on OP, I wondered this exact same thing when I saw anti suicide barriers placed on a bridge in South Korea, but yet they do absolutely nothing to fix their toxic work culture and education system which is the main reason why most of them are jumping off the bridge in the first place. At this point it's because they need more slaves to hustle and keep up the Korean wave rather than them actually giving a shit.

 

[Abyssal]

The whole thing goes deep. The people know it's not helping but to change the direction of focus would be admitting that changes need to be made and living people are at fault. Lol that'll never happen because if we aren't the problem then they must be and they can't let that happen!

 

[Alexei_Kirillov]

People stay away from "time-consuming and challenging" when they see options of "quick and easy," a tendency that results in shortsightedness, be it wilful or subconscious -- this is human nature. This is especially true of people who have the most power among us to make meaningful change -- politicians. And politicians are concerned about polls and elections which prioritize the short-term rather than the long-term, and they are backed by big-money lobbyists who live-and-breathe capitalism which prioritizes maximum returns in minimum time frames.

So, whether it's the general public, or the politicians who govern us, or the big-money corporations who pull all the strings... Everyone is focused on the short-term. It's hardwired into our fundamental way of life and is the reason why general progress is so excruciatingly slow.

How does this relate back to the original topic... It all goes towards the collective's shortsightedness and prioritization of the "right here and now" with quick fixes and wanting to see results tomorrow -- not a year from now, 5 years, 10 years, 25 years from now -- even if those fixes happen in such a way to set us up for even bigger problems in the future.

For the general public, it takes no effort for people to say "Call a suicide hotline!" And it takes relatively little funding to run a national hotline compared to the kind of funding it would take to address the underlying societal problems that contribute to the development of mental illness and suicidality in the first place.

For politicians, "Suicide Prevention" makes for a more emotionally-charged, attention-getting soundbite than "New Initiatives to Prevent Homelessness" or "Increased Funding Announced for Mental Health Initiatives."

And then for big-money corporate lobbyists, they don't have to worry about all the costs associated with those "boring" new initiatives when they can just throw some pennies at a few new suicide hotlines and tell everyone how charitable they are for their efforts in preventing suicide.

That brings the issue full circle: We go back to the general public who listens to the soundbites, being spoon-fed "suicide prevention" as the priority and not bothering to think any deeper on the subject. It's the general public who votes in the politicians, so the politicians follow suit so as to maximize reelection potential. And since big-money corporations are saving lots of money this way, they ensure these politicians stay in power while keeping the general public fixated on quick-fix, low-cost, nice-soundbite "solutions."

And if anyone dares to give a serious look at possible larger-scale initiatives, all that needs to be done is to remind them of what it would cost in taxes:

• General Public: "What about those homeless initiatives or increased mental health funding?"
• Our Political System: "Here's what those things would cost out of your pocket."
• General Public: "Suicide prevention it is!! Call those hotlines, everybody!!"

And then finally, 25 years down the line, everybody wonders why our society is so troubled and why mental illness is so widespread. MAYBE if everyone wasn't so fixated on the "right-here-and-now" and instead considered issues beyond their immediate future, then everyone would be in better shape.

It's literally this meme:

 

[Wolf Girl]

Yeah, because you can't get funding for housing, etc under the banner of suicide prevention. It doesn't make sense to the people who have the money and nothing will ever make it make sense to them. The people on the front lines of public mental health are very aware of this issue though.

Source: worked in public mental health agencies for nearly a decade

 

[skylight7]

The vast majority of suicide prevention efforts are almost if not completely focused on preventing the act of suicide itself. The warning signs, the hotlines, the steps to take… They are all focused on preventing someone who is already suicidal and often times so suicidal they are preparing to attempt from going through with the act itself. Sometimes they leave it at that, sometimes they go on to discuss treatment options after. But why is society as a whole putting so much attention on the crisis point and ignoring what gets someone into such a state in the first place? If you want to prevent a house fire you take steps to keep your house from catching on fire in the first place. The steps for what to do if your house actually does catch fire are in case all else fails, they are not the first line of defense. So if people are so worried about preventing suicide, why are they so god damned focused on putting out a fire that is already blazing and trying to do damage control from there rather than putting more effort into preventing people from becoming suicidal in the first place? It's a hell of a lot easier to fix many problems that lead to suicide before they reach a crisis point than after. Financial assistance, housing, actual proper antibullying efforts, accesible therapy and other preventative mental health care resources, job assistance programs, the list of ways to prevent a suicidal crisis goes on. Sure, efforts are being made in these areas, but the more focus that gets put on the current suicide prevention programs, the more time and money and resources are being taken away from preventing the crisis in the first place. People do not just become suicidal overnight. It is often a culmination of weeks, months, years of problems building up. If you want to prevent a house from burning to the ground, do not wait until it is already on fire to do something. Work to stop it from catching fire in the first place.

Excellent post.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

The answer is simple, it's because people don't care about the reasons that make one suicidal, they merely care about preventing the act of suicide itself. Don't be under any delusions, suicide preventionists don't give one fuck about the quality of life of suicidal people as their only motive is to make sure suicidal people don't kill themselves, that's it. It doesn't matter to them if the suicidal person suffers immensely and perpetually in life afterwards with no cure because it was never about the quality of life to them. It's super similar to how anti abortion people complain about killing a fetus but, after a child is born, they don't give one single shit about their quality of life. Why is it that governments go out of their way to restrict peaceful suicide methods like N, SN or inert gas but are okay with people dying horrifically like drowning, jumping and cutting?

In short, people are pro life and pro suffering, nothing more. When they say that they care for you, they actually don't and never will

 

[TAW122]

Exactly and well said, most CTB prevention is just focused on validating society's view on CTB, making themselves feel comfortable, and not being hurt by the realities of sentience. It was (almost) never about the person CTB'ing, only about protecting their own worldviews.