The number of people turning to the is growing in Veneto Toll Free Number 800.334343 for psychological counseling and suicide prevention. Since the beginning of the year, there have been about 200 calls per month, 60% of which were from new users; numbers that are certainly lower than during the pandemic but growing when compared to 2023.
The service was presented to citizens on Saturday 22 June at the Teatro del Parco in Mestre, as part of a promotion and prevention tour that is touching all the Veneto provinces. The year was 2012 and the Veneto Region, in collaboration with the then Ulss 4 of the Alto Vicenza area and the scientific support of the Psychology Department of the University of Padua, established the InOltre Service to offer listening and psychological support to entrepreneurs and artisans affected by the crisis. Subsequently, with the collapse of the Veneto popular banks in 2015, the toll-free number also began to receive calls from individuals and private citizens who had seen their life savings stolen. Finally the pandemic: the service reached 3,000 calls in 2020as well as in the two years that followed. Many stories were collected by operators in those dramatic months, from the difficulty in managing teenage children during the lockdown to the pain of not being able to say goodbye to a dying family member by being close to them.
For several months now, the service – now called “Toll-free number for suicide prevention and psychological counseling for community emergency management” – has been managed in co-design with the Veneto Region and Azienda Zero by the Mano Amica cooperative in Schio. Dr. Barbara Berengo, psychologist and general coordinator, says: «In these twelve years, the service has been able to respond to various emergencies and fragilities – community and individual – offering important support to citizens. At the time of the phone call, which is answered by a trained psychologist, the degree of suicide risk is assessed, on a scale of 0 to 5. The type of intervention is established on the basis of this value».
To better explain what it is about, Dr. Paola Anzolin, psychotherapist and head of scientific clinic, gives the example of the emergency room: «The toll-free number is active 24 hours a day, seven days a week.. As in a triage, the Suicide Prevention service also assigns a code to each person: in situations of immediate danger the police and 118 operators intervene directly.” From the first phone call we then evaluate whether and how to continue, also involving other entities such as the Mental Health Centre, the Serd and professionals involved in various capacities in the economic and tax field (accountant, Chamber of Commerce, INPS, etc.). «One of the objectives of the service – says Dr. Francesco Liuzzi, psychologist – is to create a network, promote responsibility and social cohesion between different actors within the community so that the citizen is not alone in managing his problem and discomfort».
Anna Maselli
