The government is planning to create unified guidelines for suicide prevention programs to support counselors communicating with suicidal people through social media, according to sources.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry are jointly working on the guidelines, scheduled to be implemented in April next year.
The guidance, which will be the first of its kind, will offer sample communication cases and cover issues such as ways to protect private data. The ministries also plan to offer training courses for personnel.
Counselors have pointed out the difficulties interacting with suicidal people through social media, which young people frequently use, mainly on their mobiles. One reason is that exchanges are in writing not spoken, making it harder for caregivers to gauge the other person's feelings. The government decided to set up the guideline to prevent any cases of suicide that could have been triggered by an unintentionally insensitive remark, or tardy response from a counselor.
The health ministry asked 13 private organizations to provide such counseling services via social media in March, which the ministry designated as a month to strengthen measures to prevent suicides.
During the period, there were 10,129 consultations, with 80 percent of them involving people in their 20s or younger. Given that the consultations were confirmed to be effective for young people, the ministry decided to continue the services from April. A ministry official said they perceive such social media counseling as "the door" to further consultation that should be conducted directly, either by phone or face-to-face.
Strengthening suicide-prevention consultations via social media was incorporated in a set of measures that the government compiled in 2017 following a case in which nine bodies were found in an apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, in October that year. The nine victims described their suicidal thoughts on social media.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
