Ingrida Gonak

Telephone consulting as one of means to prevent suicides in Lithuania: experience and future plans

A very high number of suicides is an urgent and painful problem in Lithuania. The number of suicides in 1990 was 26,9 persons out of one hundred thousand. In 2002 this number of suicide has grown to 42 persons out of one hundred thousand. That is why the prevention of crisis and suicides in Lithuania is one of the most important tasks that must be solved in community, health and social service levels. Lithuanian telephone psychological help line service plays an important part in solving this problem of overcoming the psychological crisis and prevention of suicide function in practice.

Lithuanian association of telephone psychological help services (further in the text LATPHS) was founded in 1996. It unites 22 telephone psychological help services which are active now. Volunteers and professionals of mental health are working there. These services work according to international rules and standards of psychological consulting ethics and organisation of work.

LATPHS services make a lot of efforts to encourage a development of effective interdepartmental collaboration system in Lithuania. It is also aspirating to influence governmental regulations and effective strategic decisions in the sphere of psychological crisis and suicide prevention via (vaie) effective working together.

Considering the actuality of the problem of suicides, it is evident, that the effective timely and accessible psychological and social help is necessary in these three stages of work with crisis and suicides: prevention, intervention and postvention. The same stages of the activity are very important in prevention of drugs and crimes, because this kind of problem very often rises in crisis and suicide factors of risk.

The main function of LATPHS services is to provide anonymous psychological help by telephone.

Types of LATPHS services

1. 64% - NGO organisations
2. 27% - budget organisations
3. 9% - mixed.

Percentage of volunteers and professionals of mental health working in Lithuanian anonymous psychological help lines

1. 27% of professional services
2. 64% of volunteers services
3. 9% of services, where volunteers and professionals work together.

It is evident that in Lithuania there are two thirds of all anonymous psychological help lines where volunteers - consultants work.

Every night in Lithuania 4 consultants from different psychological help lines are on duty and implement crisis and suicide prevention.

Specialisation of LATPHS services

• 36% general
• 27% for youth
• 18% for schoolchildren
• 15% for children
• 4% for teachers, parents and schoolchildren.

There were over 100 000 calls to the LATPHS services and one of ten was in psychological crisis and in need of immediate help. About two thirds of calling persons are teenagers and youth.

LATPHS's membership of international structures and organisations

• IFOTES (International Federation of Telephone Emergancy Services)
• ARP (Association Reformers on Psychiatry)

Achievements of LATPHS in collaboration with LR government

• In 1998 the Government signed the resolution about free telephone conversations for telephone psychological service's clients. These conversations are payed by LR government's reserve fund.
• LATPHS has signed the agreement about common activity with LR Ministry of Social Security and Labour.
• LATPHS's activity was included into Governmental program of suicide prevention.

Future plans of LATPHS activity

The main purpose is to unite all the psychological help lines under several phone numbers according to the specialization (for children, for youth, teenagers, adults etc.) without the decrease in number of services providing psychological help.

The aims of the programme

1. To aim that the online psychological help would be available 24 hours per day.
2. To have only several phone numbers for different specialities (children, teenagers etc.) without decrease in number of services providing psychological help.
3. To aim that the free psychological help would be available for mobile phone owners.
4. To actively participate and make offers in writing and creating Governmental suicide prevention programmes in Lithuania.
5. To encourage to cooperate all the organizations responsible for suicide prevention and crisis overcomming.
6. To provide help and support for establishing new organizations of suicide prevention and crisis overcomming.
7. To create a united infirmational and statistical LATPHS data base and to inform all the interested institutions and the society about it.
8. To develop international collaboration.
9. To evaluate LATPHS services activities and to make social audit every year

Everybody can contribute to the suicide prevention

At present the main financial support for the NGOs working in the sphere of suicide prevention comes from abroad countries financial funds. Lithuania's privat business is only at the very beginning of taking interest in supporting this sphere. The Lithuanian Government does not provide permanent financial support for suicide prevention, only pays for clients' phone calls.

To conclude with I would like to share my joy with you about the newly signed resolution. At the end of this year this resulotion about the possibility for every working person to contribute to the suicide prevention programme by giving 2% of their taxes will come into force. In this way every person will be able to choose any NGO and to give those 2% to save lives.