Facebook has introduced updated tools and educational resources to help support people in India who may be struggling with self-injury or may be experiencing suicidal thoughts.
Developed in collaboration with mental health organisations and with input from people who have personal experience with self-injury and suicide, these tools first launched in the US with the help of Forefront, Lifeline, and Save.org. Recently, the tools are rolled out in India in collaboration with local partners (AASRA and The Live Love Laugh Foundation) in English and Hindi.
Johnson Thomas, Director, AASRA said, “Facebook's new tool is another step forward in helping to prevent suicide. We hope that by providing critical resources for people who may be thinking about suicide or self-injury and their concerned friends and family members will help those in need take the first step towards rekindling hope and seeking help at a time when everything seems hopeless and bleak.”
With the help of these new tools, if someone posts something on Facebook that makes you concerned about their well-being, you can reach out to them directly — and you also can also report the post to us. We have teams working around the world, 24/7, who review reports that come in.
To help those in need further, Facebook has also introduced a ‘Help A Friend in Need’ guide in India. This guide was originally created in partnership with The Jed Foundation and The Clinton Foundation, and in India we worked with AASRA, a charity that provides anonymous and confidential professional counselling to people in India, and The Live Love Laugh Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to addressing the issue of mental health in India. The Help A Friend in Need guide helps people identify when someone is distressed and what steps to take to get help. The guide also offers suggestions on how to approach their friend, what to say, how to react and what to avoid. It gives people the skills to reach out without fear of making the situation worse. The guide will be available in English, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and Marathi.
Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director, Facebook India, South & Central Asia, said, “Socially, mental illness and thoughts about suicide are just not something we talk about. Facebook is a place where people connect and share, we care deeply about the safety and well-being of the 148 million people in India who use Facebook to connect with the people who matter to them and recognise there's an opportunity with these tools and resources to connect someone who is struggling with a person they already have a relationship with.”
Anna Chandy, Chairperson - Trustees, The Live Love Laugh Foundation, said, “The tools Facebook is rolling out, aim both at people who are expressing suicidal thoughts and also guide concerned friends or family members to resources and alternatives and appropriate interventions. People use Facebook widely, so there's an opportunity to actually connect someone who is struggling, to a person they have a relationship with. This is extremely important.”
