_78845235_78845234On Nov. 7, 2014, a new app designed to save its users from sudden disappearance suffered the same fate it was trying to prevent. According to Jamie Orme, writing in The Guardian,
Radar” was supposed to send an “alert to users when people they follow post messages that suggest depressed or suicidal thoughts.” But Radar, designed by the British mental health charity, Samaritans, appeared to cast too wide a net. Within a week of its launch, Radar had been shut down because of privacy concerns.

Even if Radar didn’t last long enough to have much of an effect, Samaritans has been in the business of saving lives since 1953. It was founded by a London vicar named Chad Varah who “wanted to do something specific to help people in distress who had no one to turn to.” Since then, it’s gone on to become one of the world’s largest telephone support services.”

No doubt picking up the phone and hearing “”H’allo” on the other end has helped countless people over the years. In my family, just picking up the phone was a huge and often impossible task. But to hear a singsong voice across the ocean asking, “H’ow can I ‘elp?” . . . this might’ve acted as such a strong and sudden antidepressant on my dead end that the recent bed occupant could’ve spent the rest of the day in the living room!

How lovely, then, that there’s such a thing as Samaritans. And you don’t need to be suicidal to call them. According to their website, most of their callers just need to talk to someone . Still, it’s sad that Samaritans can’t come up with much more than Radar at the very end.

I wonder if Samaritans might have more luck with an app that tries to reach people at the beginning. What if something in our brain, surroundings, or Twitter account told us to pick up the phone and talk to a warm voice just as soon as any particle of black started coming into view? Wouldn’t such an impuse keep our skies from clouding up? Couldn’t shouting “HELP!” keep us safe?”  J.T.

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