Role of crisis line in providing care to individuals with suicidal behavior. Overview of foreign experience

Aim of the study. This review is devoted to the analysis of foreign experience of telephone crisis lines and modern methods of providing assistance to people with suicidal behavior. Materials and methods. A systematic search was conducted on PubMed and MedLine electronic resources in search of reviews published during the period from 2010 to 2020. The following keywords were used to conduct the search: “suicide”, “prevention”, “telephone helpline”, “hot line”, “crisis line”, “crisis helpline”. For the indicated period, 58 articles were found to correspond with the declared subject. Results. It has been shown that in many countries emergency psychological help over the phone is one of the leading types of suicide prevention. At the same time, there are a number of problems that are typical to most countries. The number one problem is the fact that people who need anti-crisis assistance do not always seek to receive it. First of all, this refers to people who have the highest risk of suicide: elderly people, people with mental illness and a history of suicidal attempts. In addition, the work of crisis lines is complicated by a large number of non-suicidal calls. These problems narrow the focus of targeted anti-crisis intervention and reduce the effectiveness of preventive care. Currently, the United States and European countries have accumulated certain work experience that demonstrates that the telephone service can be optimized to meet modern requirements. Optimization methods include proper informing of the population about the provision of services and the involvement of telephone lines to manage suicide risks. When informing the population, the psychological and age-related characteristics of people belonging to high-risk groups must be taken into account: to create websites of relevant topics for users of Internet resources, but to keep using the resources of traditional media for older people. Involving telephone lines in suicide risk management includes the active patronage of individuals who have made a suicide attempt immediately after being discharged from a crisis hospital. It is proved that such activity is the guarantor of the continuity of medical care, facilitates the patient's communication with outpatient services and prevents re-suicide. Conclusions. Employing telephone lines to suicide risk management is a modern, promising approach that can be successfully implemented in the practice of telephone helplines in our country.