A new nationwide strategy to prevent suicides, especially among U.S. military veterans and younger Americans, will tap Facebook Inc as part of a community-driven push to report concerns before someone takes their own life. The new Facebook service will allow users to report suicidal comments they see online from friends. The website will then send the potential victim an email urging them to call the hotline as well as chat confidentially online with a counselor. “All too often, people in crisis do not know how - or who - to ask for help,” Facebook Global Vice President for Public Policy Marne Levine said in a statement. “We have a unique opportunity to provide the right resources to our users in distress, when and where they need them most.” The effort, announced on Monday, is the first new plan in more than a decade to address what officials say is a growing public health issue and aims to curb deaths over 10 years. “It takes the entire community to prevent suicides. It’s not just one individual,” U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin told Reuters. “We call can play a role.” READ ON: Officials tap Facebook to help prevent suicide
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A new nationwide strategy to prevent suicides, especially among U.S. military veterans and younger Americans, will tap Facebook Inc as part of a community-driven push to report concerns before someone takes their own life.

The new Facebook service will allow users to report suicidal comments they see online from friends. The website will then send the potential victim an email urging them to call the hotline as well as chat confidentially online with a counselor.

“All too often, people in crisis do not know how - or who - to ask for help,” Facebook Global Vice President for Public Policy Marne Levine said in a statement. “We have a unique opportunity to provide the right resources to our users in distress, when and where they need them most.”

The effort, announced on Monday, is the first new plan in more than a decade to address what officials say is a growing public health issue and aims to curb deaths over 10 years.

“It takes the entire community to prevent suicides. It’s not just one individual,” U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin told Reuters. “We call can play a role.”

READ ON: Officials tap Facebook to help prevent suicide

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  7. digital0ve reblogged this from reuters and added:
    this is pretty cool.. but maybe if people just logged off once in a while and went out and enjoyed the day they wouldnt...
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  14. brittanymichelle97 said: This is a great idea! Hopefully this technique will save a life!
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  20. imrushedfortime reblogged this from reuters and added:
    Also langsam aber sicher über nimmt...jetzt das ganze Leben wirklich. Ich kann also...
  21. This was featured in #Tech
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  23. buzzkillscg said: Do people even realize how melodramatic the internet even IS? And for someone like me who grew up with the internet being this place of solitude where I could get my thoughts out uninterrupted, something like this would be devastatingly invasive.
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