Madrid (EFE) of suicide for which the emergency services were alerted.
The 024, in figures
024, which receives this name because it is operational 24 hours a day, has added 1,347,403 minutes of attention in its first year, according to data provided by the Ministry of Health up to April 30, which does not establish an average attendance time since “the necessary time is dedicated to each call depending on what it needs”.
55.4% of the people who call 024 have suicidal thoughts to a greater or lesser degree and 26.6% are classified as medium risk, which means a high frequency of suicidal thoughts with intense emotional discomfort but still They have not considered “how or when to carry out the act of taking one’s own life”.
16.5% of those who go to 024 are classified as low risk and 14.06% are people seeking information on suicide, among which are, according to Health, educational environments requesting information, advice and strategic guidelines to be able to address cases of ideation in those spaces.
Also 10.7% of the calls correspond to people in the environment, who perceive a suspicion of suicide in a family member or friend or require the attention of 024 to request information about grief after a suicide.
However, the 7.3% (8,553 people) who, when they use this hotline, do so with a high or very high risk of suicide, deserve special attention, verified by the professionals who attend them.
One year of life of the 024
The 024 line covers the entire country and is attended by the Red Cross and a multidisciplinary and face-to-face team. The telephone started a year ago with the idea of lowering the suicide figures and the attempts that grew by 30% during the pandemic.
The creation of this hotline has been claimed for a long time by different groups, but no one dared to verbalize it due to the taboo and stigma it entailed, as the Ministry of Health admitted when the phone was launched.
The 024 for the prevention of suicidal behavior is part of the Mental Health Strategy launched by the Ministry of Health, approved by the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System.
The entry 7.2% of people who call 024 are at high or very high risk of suicide was first published in EFE Noticias.