Facebook and Samaritans team up to help the suicidal
Social networking site Facebook and charity the Samaritans team up to launch a service to help people who fear their friends are suicidal. One woman tells Channel 4 News her story.
People who are concerned about their Facebook friends will be able to alert the Samaritans via the social network.
The service comes after a woman was pronounced dead in hospital on Boxing Day after her plea for help via Facebook on Christmas Day was ignored.
Simone Back, 42, from Brighton posted: “Took all my pills be dead soon so bye bye everyone.”
Other people have posted messages before committing suicide – and there are also “suicide groups” across the internet.
Help
In response, Facebook and the Samaritans will urge users to call the Samaritans’ help centre and possibly the police if they see suicidal content.
If a friend says that life isn’t worth living, they should always be taken seriously. Catherine Johnstone, the Samaritans
They are also directed to a Facebook form where they can copy in the URL address of the page where they have seen a worrying status update or wall post, anonymously if they wish. Facebook will then pass on the name and email address of the vulnerable person to the Samaritans, who will get in touch within 12 hours.
'I can see that I was calling out for help'
"I suffered from depression from an early age. I used to go on chatrooms and speak to people who were feeling the same about how I was feeling so that I didn't feel alone," Emma Kitchener, who made a suicide attempt aged 19 after being bullied since she was 13 and self-harming since she was 15, told Channel 4 News.
"A few years later I used to use MySpace to blog and vent my feelings. Looking back I can see that I was calling out for help. But I didn't know where to get help."
She said that if the Samaritans had got in touch with her after she posted something on Facebook, it would have made a difference.
"I think the fact that someone is worried about you, instantly you'd feel that people around you do care. Suicide is so taboo it's difficult to talk to someone face to face. Certainly if I received an email, it would suggest to me that there might be a service there that I could then use to help me get on with my life."
Facebook said their privacy policy allows this information to be passed on.
The Samaritans are also running an awareness campaign through their Facebook page, offering support on how to spot the signs of distress in vulnerable friends.
Catherine Johnstone, chief executive of the Samaritans, said: “Through the popularity of Facebook, we are harnessing the power of friendship so people can get help.
“As a friend, you are better placed to know whether someone close to you is struggling to cope or even feeling suicidal. We want to remind people that if a friend says that life isn’t worth living, they should always be taken seriously.
“Facebook is a part of daily life for so many of us and we must make sure that people online have support when they need it.”
Facebook’s director of policy for Europe, Richard Allan, said: “They [the Samaritans] will help to make our robust reporting system even more effective, as friends are encouraged to look out for one another on Facebook as they do in the real world.”
