The pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in Nigeria

• Main Authors: Ogbolu RE (Author), Oyatokun BO (Author), Adegbite TA (Author), Ogunsola K (Author), Tade T (Author), Olafisoye O (Author), Aina OF (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, OOUTH Sagamu, 2020-08-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

Background: Suicide is the deliberate killing of oneself. Although it is preventable, suicide accounts for over 800,000 global deaths annually. There is the need to scale-up prevention strategies, and one of these strategies is the provision of suicide telephone helplines. Objectives: To describe the pattern of calls received by a suicide telephone helpline and the types of intervention provided in a Nigerian facility. Methods: This was a descriptive study of the first 100 completed calls received on a 24-hour suicide telephone helpline service by trained responders. Results: All the calls emanated from 14 states of the federation, with the majority (83.0%) from the Southern parts of the country. The reasons for the telephone calls varied from crisis situations (47.0%) to telephone number-verification (27.0%), mental health information (20.0%), and others (6.0%). The mean age of the crisis -situation callers was 25.8 years, with a slight female preponderance (53.2%); most were single in marital status (68.1%) and unemployed (70.2%). A majority (72.3%) of the callers had an underlying mental condition, 68.1% had suicidal ideation while 12.8% had previously attempted suicide. All the crisis callers were offered interventions ranging from phone counselling to linkage to the nearest mental health services. Conclusion: A majority of the crisis callers were offered mental health services, raising the possibility that the availability of telephone helplines may play a role in suicide prevention in Nigeria.

Item Description

10.30442/ahr.0603-01-87
2476-8642
2536-6149