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The B.B.C. ‘Befrienders’ Series and its Effects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

T. A. Holding*
Affiliation:
MRC Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH 10 5HF

Extract

The organization known as The Samaritans was established in 1953 in London by the Rev. Chad Varah as a suicide prevention service, but there is still an absence of data regarding the impact of this service on parasuicide (‘attempted suicide’). If it is hypothesized that the Samaritan organization does prevent parasuicide, it follows that an increase in Samaritan referrals would be associated with a decrease in parasuicide, other factors being equal. The recent B.B.C.1 programme based on the Samaritans afforded a natural experiment for testing this hypothesis.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1974 

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References

Chowdhury, N., and Kreitman, N. (1971). ‘A comparison of parasuicides and clients of the Telephone Samaritan Service.’ Applied Soc. Studies, 3, 51–7.Google Scholar
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