Published on 12, July, 2020
I've written on here many times as my obsession is with suicide prevention, which I have got caught up with in a big way, but do not want to die , but realise that we autistics have a very high risk of this.
I've tried the usual things with drugs, psychotherapy etc and in my quest (as a research doctor) , I ve now set up a major research group , with many of the National experts in the country. It has taken years to get to this point but we are approaching a launch and I wondered about others opinions as to a useful avenue.
Existing services are largely medical ( with no evidence they save lives) and listening eg Samaritans (who NEVER give advice), but always listen and chat to ask you about your worries.
We will have a launch to thousands of people. and I feel we need a NEW service that is effective. Many suicidal thoughts relate to problems which are not medical (they are about relationships, finance, legal matters etc) so my idea is to give free access to any experts who wish to register and help with suicidal distress with anonymised (safe advice) I know my problems would have been helped with legal advice, rather than medical.
So FREE EXPERT ADVICE , but creation of a record to monitor peoples requests/ story / perhaps suicide risk factors and safety factors
Do you think this service would be useful and popular? It would all be free and rely on people donating their expertise for free (anonymised).
It would all be on an anonymised database (which could be researched) , but data GDPR security would be essential.
Any thoughts?
I think it's an excellent idea and I really hope you manage to launch such a service. I would use it if I needed to.
Please ensure that it is accessible using a choice of communication methods. So many existing support services and crisis lines are telephone only and that means they are effectively inaccessible to me. Like many autistic people I struggle with verbal communication and telephone calls in particular, due to auditory processing difficulties.
As an autistic adult I am capable of living independently most of the time. Until some sort of difficulty or crisis happens that I am not able to deal myself. In those situations there is no help available. As far as social services are concerned if I am capable of dealing with day to day stuff then I also must be capable of dealing with the bigger problems in life. That simply isn't true. The more I think (or talk) about the issues the more they become huge and overwhelming in my mind. What I need is advice and practical help, not to talk endlessly about the issues but get no further forward in actually solving them.
When I have experienced suicidal thoughts in the past they have stemmed from practical problems which have seemed insurmountable, feeling trapped and helpless and a belief that there was no other way out.
I relate to this 100% she had an idea that might help. I need to get to sleep now but I’ll tell you about it when I can in the next couple of days.
We can certainly get access to talk to people but getting a service to do practical actions of help is much more .
Communication matters should be OK