999

I work for a mental health charity. I regularly speak to people with suicidal thoughts. I sometimes speak to people who are on the brink of taking their own life. I have never spoken to anyone who is actually bang in the middle of a genuine suicide attempt, i.e. someone who has already taken the pills or is making a last call with a noose around their neck, and a chair to kick back. I am trained in suicide intervention.

Yesterday, I was about to make my lunchtime trip to the gym. I went to the toilet to get changed. When I came back, one of my colleagues was on my phone. She has a new temporary position. This was her first day. She doesn’t usually talk to suicidal people. She is very capable, calm and has worked for many years in the mental health sector. Her new temporary post is to work on Fridays. Friday is ‘crisis call’ day. It is the day when we particularly need additional cover. Her second call of the day was a crisis call. She was at my desk, on my phone, and I was in the toilet.

As I walked back into the room, I heard the words, “Your speech is already very slurred, how many pills have you taken?” I walked into the room next door. “I think we are going to have to take action on a suicide attempt”, I said. As a mental health charity we have a strict confidentially policy. We also have a policy for breaching it.

The person who had taken the pills gave my colleague minimal information before hanging up the phone. “I don’t want you to call an ambulance”, she begged.

During the short phone call, she had stated her first name and the name of a service that she has accessed. Her last name, her date of birth, her telephone number and her address were all unknown.

The service that she mentioned using is very small. Although her first name is common, there was a chance of identifying her. That is if anyone answered the phone. I had tried to contact the team that the worker is attached to on many different numbers one day last week. The phones just rang and rang, with not even an answer phone to take a message. It is not a crisis service and neither are we.

Yesterday, someone answered. Yesterday, someone went through a filing cabinet of log-sheets and found just one person with the first name of our caller. The details matched the small amount of information that we had. The details included a last name, but no contact details. No address, no telephone number and no means of sending the emergency services to her door.

The manager was contacted. They had no further information. The Community Mental Health Team was contacted. After some time, they found the relevant details on a database and an ambulance was called.

My colleague, who took the call, wondered if she could have handled the call any differently. I wonder if I had taken the call, as I would have done if I had been at my desk, how well I would have fared. Would I have got the service details or a first name? Would I have handled it any better? It was only down to good fortune that the details obtained were enough.

I do believe that suicide is a human right. I also believe that it is right for the charity that I work for to intervene. If you are going to commit suicide then you should be one hundred percent sure that it is what you want. If you’re still reaching out for support, then you’re probably not that sure. Yesterday is the kind of day that makes me extremely proud of where I work. Yesterday two callers told me that the help that I’d provided was the best that they’d received. Maybe one day, if not today, a person will feel very happy that an ambulance came round and prevented their very genuine attempt to take their own life.

www.samaritans.org.uk.