On Thursday, members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee approved $110,000 for the state to establish a suicide prevention hotline.
Idaho is the only state in the union without one, though troubled residents do have access to a national call center.
Proponents of the plan say the state-based hotline would be better because local counselors could, after receiving a call from a troubled person, coordinate with other resources to ensure appropriate care.
Melissa Davlin of the Twin Falls Times-News reports that the state wouldn’t be alone in the endeavor. While the Legislature would provide a good share of the funding behind the plan, the Idaho National Guard has offered rent-free call center space, Wells Fargo has pledged $22,000 for the efforts and Mountain States Group would step in to run the program after it’s established.
Davlin also reports that the call center would cost about $111,000 in its first year and approximately $161,000 in its second year.
I say at some point people flip the switch and decide they don’t wish to deal with life any longer. Especially those in a lot of pain and are terminal. How about a copy of the book THE FINAL EXIT so the don’t botch the job.
I just read they have mobile vans in the Netherlands to help with people wanting to die. I get nutty when someone says a 90yr old person died. Hey, they had a good run and death is part of life.
I am very comfortable with the notion old people need to die and make way for a new set of people who will hopefully be better stewards of their lives and move aside when their time comes.
We do a lot of medical heroics to keep people alive for a few months longer and their quality of life is rotten. There is no cure for old age and the condition is terminal at best.
I forgot to add… Put that $110K toward some young person with their life ahead of them who needs a kidney transplant or some other vital medical assistance. Dumping billions into questionable medical procedures on the elderly is “welfare for doctors and hospitals”. I am 66 years old and when I was a growing up the average Soc. Security recipient collected about 17 check before they died. My dad made it painfully and sadly to 92 and I sure as he!! don’t want any part of that experience.
Doctors need to be held harmless for administering pain killers to those in constant pain and the terminally ill. Who cares if they become addicted as long as it helps ease the pain and end of life issues.