From April 2022 to February 2023, suicide prevention charity Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) intervened and saved an average of one person every three days from imminent risk of suicide, or a total of 114 people. Sixty-nine per cent of these cases, where people were about to...
Some 11,107 people used the service in 2022 – a year when calls for help more than doubled to 27,341 from 11,591 in 2020.
Time pressure is another challenge. Its team activates police and emergency services if needed to help de-escalate suicide attempts, and all responders have to be able to think on their feet and act quickly.Today, it has close to 400 volunteers who have to undergo six months of training and assessments on responding to distress calls.
One full-time volunteer, who is in her 40s, spoke to The Straits Times on her experiences dealing with suicide calls since she joined the organisation in 2019. When faced with aggressive clients, she said she is trained to not take it personally, and to gently divert the call back to them to share their troubles.“The priority is to keep them safe, encourage them to share about their problems, and de-escalate the risk and keep them calm as well. If I feel like I need more support, I will ask for help from other volunteers,” she added.
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