A Belgian non-profit organisation is about to launch an initiative to help prevent suicidal persons from taking their own lives.
The organisation, 'Un passe dans l'impasse' has announced that it will set up an 'alert us' button on its website from 10 September, World Suicide Prevention Day, to help people in distress.
This initiative comes on the heels of a study by ‘Un pass dans l’impasse’ which analysed the latest available figures published by the Sciensano public health institute.
These showed that, in 2019, no fewer than 1,728 persons, 1,265 men and 463 women, committed suicide in Belgium, an average of five per day. Of these, 646 were in Wallonia, 954 in Flanders and 128 in Brussels.
“It should be noted that the scientifically validated data for the years linked to the pandemic (2020 and 2021) are not yet available. However, we are seeing a 24% increase in psychological consultations linked to the theme of suicide within our non-profit association,” noted Thomas Thirion, managing director of ‘Un pass dans l’impasse’.
To better prevent such dramatic outcomes, the organisation has decided to set up an “alert us” button on its website from World Suicide Prevention Day onward. It specifies, however, that the alert can only be given with the consent of the person deemed to be in distress.
“The form to launch an alert is only accessible if this data is confirmed beforehand," the organisation explained. "After this validation, the sentinel must simply complete the contact details of the person in distress and his/her own.
"They must then send the form so that the person can be treated by ‘Un pass dans l’impasse’.”
A sentinel is any volunteer who is not a health professional, but who is trained by ‘Un pass dans l’impasse’ to detect a person in suicidal distress and to trigger an alert.
Those in need of a listening ear or with any questions about suicide can contact the Suicide Line anonymously on the toll-free number 1813 or at www.zelfmoord1813.be in Dutch, at 0800 32 123 in French, or at 02 648 40 14 in English.
