Two boys prevented a suicide: they acted in an Extreme Situation. A patent remedy for an acute suicide Situation, there is not. Except: don’t Do anything, what can they bring themselves in danger and let a suicidal Person, never alone.
In the local press of Ostholstein just a couple of Teenagers to be celebrated, because you have saved a human life. They had to bring not a risky feat, but just can’t look away:
As the two friends, 14 and 15 years old, rode their bikes through the area, they observed in the vicinity of the Embankment a young man, whom they found kind of weird. As he lay down a short time later on the tracks and called the boy immediately to the police. The railway traffic was stopped, the life-weary from the railway embankment, and brought in a clinic.
What to do if someone is perilously close to the abyss?
Thomas and David Neustadt had done everything right, praised police, rescue workers and even the mayor. This raises the question: What would we actually do if we notice a suicide attempt? FOCUS Online asked an expert for suicide prevention, which behavior is correct, if we fear that someone wants to take the life.
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Rosemarie Schettler directs the crisis, accompanied by the Telefonseelsorge Duisburg. In this role, the social worker and Gestalt therapist does not have to try again and again, that personal crises dramatically in the suicide. In Germany, about 10,000 people each year, no other way out.
“Suicide is not a criminal offence. But we must not let him still stand by,“ says crisis expert. “Who the device is actually in an extreme situation, a suicide attempt witness, you do well to call the police.”
The 110 is never wrong
Who chooses the emergency call 110, because he believes someone in danger to life, does so without any risk, even if the Situation is considered to be harmless. “We prefer to be called in once too often than once too little”, from the Munich police headquarters.
What should someone who wants to help, do not know Schettler: “no one may prevent when you attempt a suicide, even in danger.” It would therefore have been completely wrong, if the two young people climbed out of Neustadt self on the railway embankment, in order to bring the man down.
They didn’t leave until the police came, but it was also true. “A people in Distress, it does not leave itself,” says the city of Duisburg, crisis companion. “This is especially true if you have addressed the Person and contact established.”
She also has a advice on how to address a man who turns risky on a bridge railing. “Lord, you do not rule him with a ‘What are you doing?’. You speak better of yourself: ‘I’m Worried that you fall down from there. I don’t want to see. To come back a step …‘.“
Appeal, listen, take it seriously
You could also go to the Person, but not to sneak up behind me like in the movie. “Someone will approach speaking, however, is not a bad idea.”
Appeal, listen, ask questions, and not to trivialize – that is, in any case, the risk of suicide with the best behavior. “You never go easy over it, when someone speaks of Dying as the best solution – even if the sound sounds a little flippant.” After all, who has his suicide in the head, wants desperately to be taken seriously.
Desirable: First aid courses for dealing with psychological problems
So that family, friends, or colleagues in psychological crises of a people are less helpless, have developed Australian psychologist, 20 years ago, the project “Mental Health First Aid”. The First aid course for the soul wants to convey to lay people, as people with panic attacks, thoughts of suicide or acute mental health crises to the side. The program is especially popular in the USA, has never. There is no First-aid courses for the soul.
Experts regret the. Because of the positive side effect of such an open offer for everyone is that the Public will develop more understanding for the mentally Ill and the threshold decreases, friends or colleagues with psychological problems. With more openness, some psycho could be handled crisis before it becomes a seemingly unsolvable Problem, and in the suicide ending.
A Round-the-clock point of contact for all of the people in mental Distress, the telephone counseling with the Germany-wide telephone numbers 08001110-111 or -222.
The Internet platform, “friends for life” provides assistance in case of an imminent suicide. More information is available at the German society for suicide prevention. A directory of advising offices is available here: Suizidprophylaxe.de.