LGBTQ Suicide hotline getting shut down

That does not surprise me. That seems totally reasonable, in fact. I suspect that some issues would be in common. I just am wondering how there aren't differences in treatment at that moment of time, given that both of us recognize substantial differences in long-term treatment.

 

Orange and Blume is correct. Training for suicide prevention/emergency is far far different than therapy. I doubt I have had the training some here have but the little training I have had …boiled down… suicide prevention - focus on diverting the action(stop the suicide) and then work towards getting the individual (specialized)help.
Therapy.. find the underlying cause of the issue. Please note.. very very distilled explanation.
There is no reason to believe this is spiteful/hateful anymore than it’s is cost cutting in area of overlap. It would seem that this division of the hotline - specific to one small group of people- could be and should be handled by the professionals that handle all other suicide calls .Its a redundancy that isn’t needed

 

Preventing someone from hurting themselves or others requires a response in that moment.
If they indeed show signs that they will…LE gets involved of course.
Getting to that point is critical so that lives are saved.
I think you and exile are speaking more about the therapy leading up, well before an event.
Suicidal thoughts/feelings don’t pop out of the blue sky and yes can and should be treated by an actual specialized therapist.

 

Okay, I get your point basically here. Do you think a specialist would be more adept at sorting the cases (e.g., this is an actual suicide situation vs. ideation or some other non-emergency sort of situation)? If not, then I could see this perspective, that the most important element to treatment is getting people treatment before and afterwards. Of course, that then gets into costs and all that from a policy perspective as well, but, yeah, hotlines are not good substitutes for real treatment.

 

Wrong. It's a decade of experience working with a call center. I work for an online university generating leads, most of which get called. I have listened to hundreds of calls, and yes, there is a basic commonality between all of them. But the conversation between an agent talking to an incoming BBA freshman is much different than one between an agent and an PhD in Education candidate.

While everyone answering suicide hotline calls are very well trained, do you honestly believe an agent who is gay, or one with a close family member who is gay isn't better equipped to handle incoming calls from gays? Not that someone without personal experience can't handle the call, but which has a higher chance to build repoire and have a positive outcome?

Look on any therapist website today and they will tell you what they specialize in. Why shouldn't we also extend that elsewhere?

 

It’s confusing…
A trans-man is a man, we are told.
Gay couples should be equivalent to heterosexual couples in adopting.
“We are like everyone else and wanted to be treated like everyone else.” This is a common mantra

Except when they are not. Got it.

 

Yet again, maga rationalizing why we shouldn’t provide life-saving help to others.

 

It’s like you never bothered to read the thread.

 

Next president should start a MAGA suicide hotline for people so distraught that Trump can't be King... I'd volunteer, and I promise I won't encourage them to do it... really I won't.... really.

 

This was probably done for spite (come on, everything this admin does is for spiteful reasoning or to generate outrage).

Of course seems the rationalizers are assuming they will be routed or properly handed off to specialists, does anyone actually believe that? I get the argument about “crisis response” vs longer term counciling, I just suspect the sorts of people in this admin don’t value ANY of it on any level.

 

It’s like you didn’t even bother to read the thread…
Ugh

 

Yep, it’s a big deal for them to use cruelty attempting to project “toughness”.

 

I'm not saying it's clinically/medically necessary, but I'm wondering if the hotline allows for caller preferences or specialists in other contexts. I could imagine, for example, a woman who's been victimized by sexual abuse who might be more comfortable speaking with a woman as opposed to a man. Or that a person struggling with alcohol abuse may prefer to speak with someone who has either personal experience or specialized training in that area. I am sure there are many clinical and practical distinctions between regular therapy and emergency hotlines, but I am wondering whether allowing preferences and tailored options when possible might result in some percentage of people being more likely to make the call or use it a second time.

 

That’s quite a long post telling us all you know nothing about handling suicide.

 

You do realize gay folks pay taxes too.

Also, no money is being saved. From both AP and The NY Times: "The hotline would maintain the same overall funding of $520 million, but not direct any to an L.G.B.T.Q. section, which accounted for a small portion, $33 million."

As to the idea of specialized services, how about this doozy: "Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to wrap SAMHSA and other agencies into a new HHS office called Administration for a Healthy America, where it would coexist with employees from other agencies responsible for chemical exposures and work-related injuries."

Seriously, these kids (and they are mostly kids) getting the help they need is going to be the equivalent of getting a human voice on the phone when you call a crappy credit card company's help line if this all comes to pass.

 

On the flip side you could also argue different suicide hotlines is not too dissimilar to different water fountains, different schools, etc. What would the the SCOTUS who gave down the ruling on Brown vs the Board of Education think about different suicide hotlines?

 

Many of you are still equating suicide prevention with therapy. Not the same and does not take the same track or the same focus.
And many are just spouting their hate for all things MAGA and Trump which seems to have little significance to the issue.

 

They are not actually all kids.
Mostly adults called…

 

Maybe if the hotline were race based or created inequality you’d have a point.

This is more like arguing to do away with a battered spouse crisis hotline because it’s sexist against men (maybe the admin deleted that already, I don’t want to give them any ideas). The hotline doesn’t create the discrimination that exists in society, purportedly it’s an attempt to overcome that discrimination (or at least make people more comfortable about calling). Whether it’s effective or not I have no idea, but comparing that to conditions under racial segregation is beyond laughable.

 

It is identity based segregation for a public service provided by the government. I don’t see how it could be argued otherwise. Does race play by a different set of rules than LGBTQ when it comes to anti-discrimination law? It appears to be the case many people want two different discrimination rule books: one for race and one for gender and sexuality. It is OK to have separate but equal for X, but it is not OK to have separate but equal for Y. That seems to be the case you are making here for this suicide hotline public service provided by the government just for LGBTQ people.