SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE (212) 673-3000

To download a PDF version of Samaritans I Can Help! booklet, click here. To access additional suicide prevention information, resources and materials, visit Samaritans online Resource Guide. You can also order free brochures, hotline cards, magnets and fliers on that webpage. To request a free copy of the booklet be sent to you by mail, call Samaritans Education Office at (212) 673-3661. Please note: this is a message service only.

The information contained in Samaritans "I Can Help!" Suicide Awareness & Prevention Booklet is a result of the Samaritans of New York's experience training students, parents, teachers, social workers, guidance counselors, psychologists, police officers, firefighters, nurses, emergency service staff and others from the NYC Department of Education, NYPD, FDNY, St. Vincent's Hospital, Mt. Sinai Rape Crisis, Safe Horizon, NYC AIDS Task Forces, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Loisaida, Inc., Hunter College, NYU Graduate School of Nursing, Salvation Army, Girl Scouts of America and hundreds of other schools, non-profit and community-based agencies.

It is solely intended to provide the reader with insight and perspective into Samaritans approach to helping people who are depressed, in crisis or suicidal as practiced in 400 centers in 40 countries around the world--from Argentina, Bosnia, England and India to Singapore, Trinidad and Zimbabwe.

This booklet is born out of the basic need of those working on the front lines--whether as a family member or friend of someone in crisis or a lay or professional caregiver or service provider--to feel more comfortable and confident and better prepared when responding to or providing treatment to those who are in distress, depressed and/or "at risk" for suicide.

The information, guidelines, procedures and resource material in this booklet are derived from the 34-plus hour Samaritans Hotline Training Program that has prepared over 2,000 volunteers to respond to callers in crisis on New York City's 24-hour suicide prevention hotline since 1983.

Samaritans wishes to thank the American Red Cross for supporting this project as well as the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the NYS Office of Mental Health and the NYC Department of Education, without whom this publication would not have been possible.