Launch of a new national suicide prevention number, 3114

Listening, guiding people suffering from suicidal ideation but also their loved ones: this is the objective of 3114, a national suicide prevention number launched on Friday 1^er October.

Free, this service guarantees listening “Professional and confidential” twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, by nurses and psychologists trained as respondents. In total, ten centers are opening their doors across the country on Friday and will be joined by nine others by the start of 2022, to form a network eventually employing 300 people.

In 2022, the 3114 should be enriched with a chat service. Its creators also want to make it accessible to people with disabilities and inmates, adding this number to those allowed inside prisons.

9,000 suicides per year

Promised under the Ségur de la santé and coordinated by the University Hospital of Lille, this issue complements previous systems, such as VigilanS, created in 2015 in Hauts-de-France, which follows people who have attempted suicide. The center of Lille will also ensure, like those of Brest and Montpellier, the reception of calls during the night.

The entire national suicide prevention strategy aims to“Arrive at a break in the curve of deaths by suicide”, explained during a press presentation Professor Pierre Thomas, head of the psychiatry center of the Lille University Hospital and national coordinator of the project. “There are still 9,000 deaths by suicide per year on the territory, it’s huge, they are preventable deaths”, he added. According to Public Health France, France presents “One of the rates [de suicide] the highest in Europe “.

Callers can remain anonymous if they wish but “Since it is a question of having concrete support actions, we will endeavor to lift anonymity”, he explained.

“Intervention logic”

For Charles-Edouard Notredame, psychiatrist and deputy coordinator of the project, “The big difference compared to the existing helplines in suicide prevention, is that this one is professional whereas the majority are voluntary and that it has more a logic of intervention and action, in particular in rescue thanks to a very close collaboration with the SAMU ”.

“We are really happy with the arrival of this device because it was one of the missing stones”, rejoices Patrick Goldstein, the boss of the SAMU du Nord, which welcomes this new service in its premises.

“Today many calls like this arrive in the SAMUs:“ I’m going to take action ”,“ I have dark thoughts ”. And we don’t know how to do it. It’s a job and we don’t have time. What we want is not to intervene: when we intervene (…), is that we missed something. “

Covid-19 as a trigger

The launch of this line comes a few days after the Assises of Mental Health and Psychiatry, during which President Emmanuel Macron announced measures to meet the strong demand for care. From 2022, Medicare will reimburse consultations with liberal psychologists “For the whole population from the age of 3”. However, this treatment will be subject to conditions: patients must be “Sent by medical prescription as part of a consultation package”, the first session being invoiced 40 euros and the following ones 30 euros each, all renewable the following year if necessary.

According to the latest results of the CoviPrev survey published on September 17, 15% of French people show signs of a depressive state (+ 5 points compared to the situation outside the epidemic), 23% of the signs of an anxious state (+ 10 points) and 10% had suicidal thoughts during the year (+ 5 points). Isolation, anxieties, domestic violence in the privacy of confinements were the detonators of new suffering.