Suicide helpline cuts callers off after two minutes

Calls to suicide-prevention helpline Livslinien are automatically disconnected after two minutes when no adviser is available, DR reports. Eighteen-year-old Svend Kløcker says the system can feel like a rejection.

Kløcker tried three times to reach the helpline, which offers support to people affected by suicide as well as those at risk. He was looking for ways to cope after two girls who had contacted him on social media later died by suicide. He did not know them.

After his calls failed, Kløcker posted a video criticising the system on TikTok and Instagram on Sunday evening. It had been viewed more than 300,000 times in two days.

“It takes courage to call, and when the line automatically hangs up, it can feel like a rejection,” Kløcker told DR’s P1 Morgen. He said that for someone in crisis, it could be the last rejection they could bear before things went wrong.

Kløcker, who attends Viborg Cathedral School, said he had recently had a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia removed and was now being assessed for PTSD. He stressed that his criticism was not aimed at Livslinien’s volunteer advisers, whom he said deserved praise, but argued that the helpline needed more resources.

Livslinien director Jeppe Kristen Toft said he was sorry for every caller who failed to get through. The service has 320 advisers, but its funding covers about 25,000 to 30,000 conversations a year. The helpline received 280,000 calls last year, he said.

Toft said the service uses a system designed to manage heavy demand. A queue might not be a good alternative, he said, because people in immediate danger could wait rather than seek help elsewhere or call emergency services. The helpline’s message advises callers to dial 112 in an emergency.

Health Minister Ida Auken said Livslinien should be seen as one of several support options, pointing to a public psychiatric emergency line. The helpline has recently received an additional seven million kroner, but Auken did not say whether it should receive more funding. She said it was important that people in crisis could seek help.

Livslinien offers anonymous counselling to people at risk of suicide, their relatives and people bereaved by suicide. It opened in 1995 and is an independent institution overseen by the Social Ministry. People in crisis can call 70 201 201 or chat at livslinien.dk; call 112 if the situation is life-threatening.