Spain launches a telephone to prevent suicide: 024

The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, this Monday in Madrid during the presentation of the 024 hotline for suicidal behavior. SERGIO PÉREZ (EFE)

People with suicidal thoughts and their relatives have a resource to go to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, starting this Tuesday.

It is the telephone number for attention to suicidal behavior (024), which the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, has presented today to try to reduce what has become the first external (unnatural) cause of death in Spain: 3,941 cases accounted for in 2020, the last year for which there is data and the highest figure in the series, with a 5.7% increase compared to 2019.

Under the slogan "Call for life", 024 is the fulfillment of a promise that comes from last October, when the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced a package of measures of 100 million euros to finance mental health.

The telephone, which will be free and confidential, will be attended by professionals from the Red Cross in a transition period of one year, until a tender is made as a public service.

The deputy director of Knowledge in Health of the NGO that will manage the service, Fátima Caballero, explained that a "qualified and multidisciplinary" team will attend to it, guaranteeing care without waiting at any time.

"It will provide response, prevention and emotional support" to people who are thinking about taking their own lives, are trying to do so, and their families.

The idea, deeply rooted in other countries, is based on the fact that anyone who has thoughts of taking their own life can count on professional help, with someone who listens to them at any time and, if necessary, activates an action in coordination with the emergency services.

Darias has assured that it is "a step that will help many people", which will serve to "end stigmas and taboos" around suicide.

In the same idea she has influenced the presentation of the telephone Dolors López Aliaga, coordinator and developer of the Teacher Training Plan in prevention, detection and intervention of suicide in the Valencian Community: “If someone needs to talk about suicide, they have to be able to do it .

Because the person who takes his own life does not want to die, but rather to stop suffering.

It is a social problem that can affect anyone, there is no profile of the suicidal person”.

More information

Calls for help for suicidal ideas and attempts in minors have multiplied by 12 in the last 10 years

In the opinion of Diego Palao, a psychiatrist specializing in suicide and director of Mental Health at the Parc Taulí University Hospital in Sabadell (Barcelona), it is a "very useful" tool, although it would be even more so if it were accompanied by a complete suicide prevention plan. , something that does not exist at the national level and that is missing.

"There is evidence that this type of intervention is useful," says Palao.

“Not in clinical trials that quantify how much they reduce suicides, something that is very complicated, but in terms of care.

They have a lot of impact in helping to reduce stigma because they remove barriers to accessing help.

That people who are suffering and disconnected from their environment have access to a telephone that attends to them in an empathetic and friendly way saves lives, because any intervention that improves accessibility does so”, adds the expert.

Telephones like this serve, from the outset, to alleviate loneliness, which is sometimes one of the problems that people with suicidal behavior present, explains Palao.

“Suicide is in most cases associated with health problems, it is one of the symptoms of depression.

And it is important to encourage people to seek help, just as they do when they have chest pain, ”she justifies.

Until now, in Spain there were various local or sectoral initiatives, but there was no public telephone service for suicidal behaviour.

The Anar Foundation, which manages lines and a chat to help minors with problems, published worrying data last week: in the last decade, calls from kids with suicidal ideas have multiplied by 12, going from 298 in 2012 to 3,665 in 2021.

These figures are in line with other data that indicate that the pandemic has multiplied mental health problems, especially among minors.

Benjamín Ballesteros, director of programs at Anar, exemplifies the importance of hotlines: “Of the thousands of calls we received last year, 748 were cases that were already trying to end their lives.

They are people whom we treated with professionals while we coordinated 112, the police and the Civil Guard so that they could be attended to.

They wouldn't be alive today if they hadn't talked to us."

Of the rest of the calls, it is difficult to quantify how many changed their minds after speaking with Anar's psychologists, but Ballesteros is sure there are hundreds, since many begin with the idea of ​​taking their own life, but others are very clear about it.

“Generally, they are boys and girls who consider this as a solution to other problems that are behind it and for which they feel desperate, such as domestic, physical, psychological violence, aggression, abuse, bullying…“, he lists.

Anar advocates creating a division in care between adults and minors, given the differential elements between the two groups.

It is something that is already happening with the 016 sexist violence telephone number.