Increase in the number of inquiries made to the Church SOS help-line
The Church SOS in Norway had an increase of almost 6,000 more calls in 2016 than in the previous year. One in seven callers wanted to talk about suicide.
The Church SOS in Norway is the largest emergency service, and responds to calls through instant messaging, SMS and by telephone. In 2016, the service received a total of 182,159 inquiries, which was 5,927 more than in 2015, reported Dagen newspaper.
‘Suicides was the topic in 15% of the calls. It was reported that 9% of those who contacted us had suicidal thoughts’, said a lecturer in the Norwegian Church SOS, Lene Hopland Bergset, to the newspaper.
The Crisis Service has more than 40 employees and nearly 1,000 volunteers.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
