From Theory to Practice: do we Really Listen? 2 – The Voluntary Sector Perspective (IN: Suicide Prevention: The Global Context. Proceedings of the 19th Congress of the IASP…, ed. by R J Kosky et al)

This chapter asks if the health community truly understands suicide and its prevalence among different cultures and different age groups. Several examples of people contemplating suicide and then seeking help from a volunteer group called The Samaritan are given. These examples draw from the young and elderly in China and Hong Kong. In order to help lower the suicide rate, one must understand common pressures afflicting people in certain cultures and age groups, and provide people to listen.