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Facebook's Latest Mission: Prevent Suicides

Site will urge users who post distressing comments to get help

By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 10, 2012 1:20 PM CDT

(Newser) – Concerned about one of your Facebook friends? The social networking site will soon allow you to report any suicidal comments you see, and Facebook will follow up by sending the user an email with the number of a suicide prevention hotline and instructions on how to chat with a counselor online confidentially. The new feature is part of a nationwide suicide prevention push, which is aimed especially at US military veterans and young people, Reuters reports.

"All too often, people in crisis do not know how—or who—to ask for help," a Facebook exec says in a statement. "We have a unique opportunity to provide the right resources to our users in distress, when and where they need them most." Facebook is just one part of the new plan, which also involves public service announcements and $55.6 million to fund grants for suicide prevention programs.

A Facebook logo is displayed on the screen of an iPad, Wednesday, May 16, 2012, in New York.
A Facebook logo is displayed on the screen of an iPad, Wednesday, May 16, 2012, in New York.   (AP Photo/James H. Collins)
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If you're putting that out on Facebook, you're saying 'I am desperate, and I need help,' but you may not be able to make the phone call. - Cheryl Sharp, National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
jigga.wut
Sep 10, 2012 2:54 PM CDT
Everyone should just stay out of peoples private lives.  If people want to end their lives, get out of their way. It's a waste of funding to save people who have lost their will to live, when that money could be better placed in programs to find new cures for people who actually want to live.
pg13
Sep 10, 2012 2:41 PM CDT
I just checked my Facebook status and I'm relieved it reports that I am not suicidal.
johnny5point6
Sep 10, 2012 1:28 PM CDT
I like to think that people's friends would respond before they would have to alert facebook's suicide hotline....
 

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