The pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in Nigeria
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...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, OOUTH Sagamu
2020-08-01
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| Series: | Annals of Health Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.annalsofhealthresearch.com/index.php/ahr/article/view/236 |
| _version_ | 1818569027910369280 |
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| author | Ogbolu RE Oyatokun BO Adegbite TA Ogunsola K Tade T Olafisoye O Aina OF |
| author_facet | Ogbolu RE Oyatokun BO Adegbite TA Ogunsola K Tade T Olafisoye O Aina OF |
| author_sort | Ogbolu RE |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T06:42:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7ae7b5bd9ea34ead92f48e3296c5cf0c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2476-8642 2536-6149 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T06:42:40Z |
| publishDate | 2020-08-01 |
| publisher | Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, OOUTH Sagamu |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Annals of Health Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-7ae7b5bd9ea34ead92f48e3296c5cf0c2022-12-21T23:13:10ZengMedical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria, OOUTH SagamuAnnals of Health Research2476-86422536-61492020-08-016324625710.30442/ahr.0603-01-87The pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in NigeriaOgbolu REOyatokun BOAdegbite TA Ogunsola KTade TOlafisoye OAina OFBackground: 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.https://www.annalsofhealthresearch.com/index.php/ahr/article/view/236crisis interventionmental healthsuicidetelephone helplinemental health |
| spellingShingle | Ogbolu RE Oyatokun BO Adegbite TA Ogunsola K Tade T Olafisoye O Aina OF The pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in Nigeria Annals of Health Research crisis intervention mental health suicide telephone helpline mental health |
| title | The pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in Nigeria |
| title_full | The pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in Nigeria |
| title_fullStr | The pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in Nigeria |
| title_full_unstemmed | The pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in Nigeria |
| title_short | The pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in Nigeria |
| title_sort | pattern of crisis calls to a suicide telephone helpline service in nigeria |
| topic | crisis intervention mental health suicide telephone helpline mental health |
| url | https://www.annalsofhealthresearch.com/index.php/ahr/article/view/236 |
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