Facebook Joins Hands With Samaritans To Prevent Suicides

World Suicide Prevention Day falls on September 10 and the social networking giant Facebook has collided with support service Samaritans to launch a series of suicide prevention tools.

Facebook will depend on users to flag posts from family  and friends which may be indicative of suicidal tendencies or emotions.

On Tuesday, Irish Times reported that the posts of concern will be prioritised by Facebook moderators so that they can contact the relevant individual with help options and resources they will get in association with Samaritans.

These tools will also have an option of contacting a Samaritans volunteer or reaching out to a friend.

Facebook’s European safety policy manager, Julie de Bailliencourt said that Facebook is used by people to  connect with friends and family and that is the reason they are evolving their support, resources and advice available to people who have suicidal feelings or in distress and also their concerned family members and friends.

Samaritans provides emotional support to the people who experience suicidal thoughts, feelings of distress or despair.

Facebook users can report a suicide threat or post by anyone. They will simply have to attach a screenshot of the post, mention the username of the concerned person and mention the URL at Facebook help page.

Samaritans will then reach out to them to understand how they feel and reassure them that life can be normal again.

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6 September 2016
Avni S. Singh