Facebook and the Samaritans team up

Trauma often leads to suicidal feelings. So ways of preventing suicide may also provide a first step towards therapy and trauma healing for desperate individuals.

30 million people in the UK, that’s half the population, are now registered with Facebook. And people often share intimate things on Facebook that they are unwilling or unable to share directly with friends and family. Last Christmas a British woman told over 1,000 Facebook friends that she had taken an overdose. But no-one raised the alarm until the next day.

Now, Facebook and the UK charity Samaritans have joined forces to prevent similar tragedies in future.  For many years, Samaritans have provided confidential non-judgemental emotional support for those in distress or despair, including those contemplating suicide. This new initiative enables Facebook users to report concerns about their friends’ status updates and wall posts to the Facebook Help Centre, who will put Samaritans counsellors in touch with the distressed person. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to work out how to do this. If you know, perhaps you could leave a comment here.

This link-up shows the potential power for good of social networks. Let’s hope Facebook expands this initiative to other countries.

Thanks to the Guardian newspaper for this story.

An Update on Lessons from the Floods

A few days ago, I wrote about the lessons Australia and the world can learn from the recent floods. Most of the points I made for a strategy to reduce trauma from future natural disasters were supported in a subsequent current affairs programme on ABC TV. Now, the dozens of charities concerned with mental health in Australia have spoken out.

Already there has been almost a 40% increase in demand for mental health services as people struggle to come to terms with what the flood has done to their lives. Amongst children, the increase is nearer 50%. Some victims are already talking about suicide as they face their seemingly hopeless financial situation. A huge crisis in housing is looming as short-term accommodation with friends and family becomes stressful, and ends. There simply are not enough houses available for rent in what was already a tight housing market.

Bob Gilkes, of the mental health charity Lifeline, is quoted as saying: "If we don't address some of the psychosocial issues that will exhibit in the community over the next few months, they will have lasting effects in our society for generations to come. ...
That could be much more expensive than what it would cost to address the issues now. ... If you have families that become dysfunctional because of stress, depression, anxiety, anger, you have families break up. You generally see much more dependence on the welfare system and that can go on generationally."

Similar issues arise wherever in the world there are natural disasters, wars, genocide, and other collective traumas. Few countries have the resources to address them adequately. There will never be enough highly-trained psychologists and counsellors to meet the needs in disaster zones. What is needed is a long-term programme to train large numbers of community members in the symptoms of trauma to watch for, and simple ways of preventing and healing it. More general community-building activies are also essential for increasing mutual support and the resilience to cope. In these ways, we can bring hope to the victims of disaster, and simultaneously reduce the destructive effects of trauma on families, communities and nations.