Pan-EU suicide helpline held back by lack of funds
Efforts to establish a similar EU-wide hotline for reporting missing children has also been met with a lukewarm response by Government, despite 42 children being reported missing in Ireland already this year.
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) has offered to run the helpline for missing children if the Government would provide €80,000 per annum.
The European Commission warned 14 member states, including Ireland, to introduce the 116000 missing children helpline by May 25 next year or face possible legal sanctions.
Under an EU initiative, six 116 freephone hotlines including helplines for victims of crime and for non- emergency medical services are being introduced to be accessible from anywhere within the EU.
The 116-123 number will be able to be dialled anywhere in the EU to access an emotional support help- line. However, the Samaritans – which has been assigned responsibility for operating the service in Ireland – has warned that they cannot afford the estimated annual cost of €825,000 to fund the helpline out of their own resources.
“That is simply unaffordable,” said Samaritans director Suzanne Costello.
She recently told an Oireachtas Committee that the Samaritans is technically ready to introduce the 116 helpline and could begin accepting calls within five days.
Eircom currently pays around €500,000 to mobile operators per annum for calls to the Samaritans’ existing 1850 lo-call number which originates on their networks. However, Eircom has warned that it cannot continue such a level of subsidy indefinitely.
The EU initiative to introduce six special 116 numbers to provide a harmonised service of social value helplines obliges all 27 EU countries to promote them. However, it does not specify who should bear the cost of providing the various services.
Ms Costello described the establishment of the 116- 123 number as “a unique opportunity to reach out to more people experiencing emotional distress and suicidal thoughts”.
The Samaritans said research had shown that the perceived cost of a telephone call can prevent people with suicidal thoughts from seeking help by calling the charity.
“As an EU-wide, easy-to- remember number, 116-123 has the potential to be as universally known as the number 112 and 999,” Ms Costello said.
A pilot scheme which operated with the 116 number in Britain had shown more calls were received during daytime hours with similar increases in the length of calls and number of calls from mobile phones.
“All of this confirms our view that cost has been a barrier for some,” said Ms Costello.
The Samaritans has claimed that calls to their 24-hour helpline service have already risen by 10% since the start of the year.
The Samaritans, which is staffed by 1,500 volunteers, have reported receiving 310,000 calls in the first 10 months of the year – an average of 1,200 per day. It handles calls lasting about 3.3 million minutes per annum. A total of 527 people took their lives by suicide in 2009.
The Government is also be obliged to promote a new EU-wide 116 hotline for missing children from May 2011.
Recent appearances by representatives from the departments of Justice and Health before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications indicated a reluctance to support the introduction of the 116-000 hotline for missing children.
Both departments indicated current arrangements for reporting missing children were “effective” and warned the establishment of a parallel system could potentially create confusion and be an inefficient use of resources.
However, the ISPCC has informed the Government it could launch the services within a few months if the Government could provide funding of €80,000.
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