According to the Beijing Psychological Crisis Research and
Intervention Center, in China, 287,000 people killed themselves
each year and two million attempted suicide. Suicide has become the
fifth biggest death reason for Chinese citizens.
To deal with this serious social problem, the Beijing
Psychological Crisis Research and Intervention Center sets a free
round-the-clock hotline (800-810-1117) for consultation and suicide
prevention. They also provide service through a payphone
(010-62715275).
One of the hotline operators introduced that people who dial the
hotline all, more or less, have some mental or emotional problems,
but not aware of them. The operators have to be a good listener
first, try to know more about the talker and judge his or her
situation. When encountering a person with serious depression, they
would intervene the talker with consolation and revelation.
Suicide is one of the syndromes of depression. Emergency
measures should be taken in severe cases, including getting help
from the public security departments and emergency centers. Family
members of those who have suicide tendency should be informed when
necessary in order to take precautions.
Xia Xueluan, professor from the Sociology Department of Peking University,
pointed out that the increasing pressure of a modern society brings
vehement emotional confrontation, easily making people lose their
original faith and become goalless. The rise of suicide cases
reflects the poor integration level of the Chinese society. The
suicide hotline can be a buffer to suicide attempts and win some
time for salvation, but it still needs help from social workers and
communities to tackle the problem at the root.
In Western countries, there are usually 500 psychological
workers for every million people, but in China, there are only
three to five for the same size of population. Setting up a social
security network both materially and spiritually is vital for
suicide control, said Professor Xia. At present, however, China has
not yet enough psychology-aid stations and its social salvation
system is far from being perfect.
(China.org.cn by Li
Liangdu, August 8, 2003)