WE STRENGTHEN COLLABORATION ALLIANCES IN ORDER TO SAVE MORE LIVES

During the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the attentions offered by the “SayYes to life” program at the Safety Line and Trustworthy Chat 55 5533-5533 doubled.

Within the framework of the World Day for Suicide Prevention held on September 10^th, specialists and heads of civil and government organizations deemed it necessary to strengthen collaboration alliances with the purpose of saving the lives of more people who have a suicide risk, given that they face problems cause by diverse factors.

During the Virtual meeting titled “Strategies for Suicide Prevention” organized by the Citizen Council for Safety and Justice in Mexico City, its President, Salvador Guerrero Chipres, informed that, this year, they have received two thousand 447 cases through the Safety Line and Trustworthy Chat 55 5533-5533, which offers free services 24/7, 365 days-a-year.

He explained that during the pandemics caused by COVID-19 attentions offered though the program “SayYes to Life” increased by 2.3 times in comparison with 2019 and 57% of these were aids offered to young people.

During his intervention, the President of the Suicide Specialists World Network, Angela Beatriz Martinez Gonzalez pointed out that they work from different perspectives, nationwide, with the purpose of preventing suicide more efficiently. This is made with the help offered by all sectors of society as well as with specialists from different disciplines.

The Head of the Special Projects and Logistics Support Unit of the Collective Transportation System, Subway, Natalia Canela Prado, revealed that thanks to the program “Let’s Save Lives” in which the Citizen Council participates, since 2016 they have rescued 400 people who tried to commit suicide in the Collective Transportation System, Subway, who are still in therapeutic treatment. Sixty percent of them are men.

The Assistant Director of the CONADIC Lifeline, Adriana Reyes Iraola, manifested the need to create a National Strategy for Suicide Prevention and thus reduce the number of deaths by this cause.

Statistics of the Citizen Council reveal that 51 percent of the people who were aided at the Safety Line and Trustworthy Chat through WhatsApp 55 5533-5533 are single and most of them live with their parents.

Among the main reasons why they seek help from the Citizen Council’s psychologists there is helplessness, break-ups, family problems, violence within the family and depression.

Most of the attentions have taken place through the Trustworthy Chat with 65.1 percent; 34.9 percent have taken place by phone.

The Citizen Council offers counseling services for people who have this type of problem, as well as for their families, at any time or day, and they offer therapies in-person at the offices they have at the Iztapalapa and Cuauhtémoc seats.

Up to this date, 232 people have gone to appointments at the Emotional Recovery Center; 229 took virtual therapies, 139 at the Iztapalapa mayoralty, 88 at the seat in Amberes and 5 at the Collective Transportation Service (Subway).

You can find our SayYes to Life study here.