SINGAPORE – A 24-hour safe space will be set up for suicidal people to get help from counsellors and social workers. It is an alternative to being hospitalised at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) if they have nowhere else to go to.

The space will be set up in 2024 by charity Samaritans of Singapore with support from IMH, as part of a new tie-up to improve suicide prevention. The two organisations signed a memorandum of agreement at the Samaritans’ centre in Outram on Dec 15.

Mr Phua Chun Yat, the Samaritans’ chief operating officer, said the safe space is intended to help de-escalate suicide risk. The suicide prevention charity’s only current alternative for the same purpose is to engage emergency services, which may be costly in the long run.

“(The safe space) is meant to be a 24/7 facility when someone calls us and they’ve got nowhere else to go, because most of the social service agencies are not 24/7,” Mr Phua said.

“Eventually, the goal is really to see how we can have the different parts of our ecosystem... able to provide different types of support to (suicidal people) through the very difficult times that they’re going through.”

He said the ecosystem includes IMH, the Samaritans, family service centres and other organisations that encounter suicidal people, such as general practitioner clinics and social service agencies.

Associate Professor Daniel Fung, chief executive of IMH, said there is a need for a space outside hospitals to tide suicidal people over. “The hospital is a safe and secure place that is also potentially traumatising – it’s isolated, it’s not in the community, it’s in a hospital. And for our hospital, unfortunately, there’s still a stigma. So people are reluctant to seek help... So having this may give people the solace of finding a place where they have someone to talk to.”

He added: “Suicidality is a temporary state. The feeling will go away, and you can keep (suicidal people) safe for that period, and help them to find an anchor in their lives.”

The space, which is still being planned, is not meant for people to stay at for long – it provides an immediate service in a time of crisis.

In 2022, 476 suicides were reported in Singapore, the highest number since 2000, and a 25.9 per cent increase from 2021. More than a quarter of the suicides involved young people – those aged 10 to 29 – another high in more than two decades.

Under the new collaboration, the Samaritans and IMH will share their best practices and train each other’s care teams to manage cases of distress and identify mental illnesses.

The two organisations also hope to create a framework of best practices for social service agencies to operate crisis helplines, and a two-way referral system between IMH and the Samaritans to better support suicidal individuals.

Prof Fung said: “It’s important to have standards and guidelines on how to manage (and) identify (mental) illness, differentiate it from distress and social issues, and I think this shared training and collaboration will strengthen this over time.”

He said that while IMH diagnoses and treats mental illnesses, the Samaritans provides hope to those who are feeling suicidal by connecting them with a community that cares for them.

The Samaritans has about 200 volunteers managing its 24-hour hotline and 100 volunteers manning its CareText WhatsApp service.

Minister of State for Social and Family Development Sun Xueling, who was guest of honour at the signing ceremony, said young people may feel trapped when dealing with problems with their family, friends or other relationships. “It is often the sense that there is no way out – that causes them to seek drastic measures in the current situation that they are facing.”

She said having a safe space will help suicidal individuals who may not need to be hospitalised to reintegrate into society. “(The Samaritans is) able to make connections with the individual, potentially with their family members, potentially with other community partners, to make sure that there is a nexus of care around this individual that sits between the hospital setting and ultimately the home and community setting.”

She added: “(The memorandum of agreement) will help strengthen this ecosystem of care that we provide to individuals who are facing stresses and guide them away from taking drastic measures.”