Instead of difficult mental health threads being deleted...

I'm so sorry for your loss @SurvivingTheGame, that must be so, so difficult for both you and your children.

The thread that caused this one was one on AIBU I think, where the OP suddenly mentioned suicide out of nowhere. They said the many negative posts from people there had made them decide to do it, and were asking about making wills etc, while getting more wound up.

I think that's a bit different from someone coming on saying they feel suicidal and need help - I've seen the latter sort of threads stick around.

As someone who has just cremated their children's father after he took his own life, I’m horrified by this. Particularly so as it was completely unexpected and his final note to himself said there wasn’t a single person he could speak to as he believed he would be judged, wrongly of course!

He would never have called the Samaritans, and having been suicidal myself in the past neither would I have, but I did get MH support here on mumsnet at the time. Anonymous forums like this can be a lifeline to those needing support and to know others have came through it.

I reported one yesterday (nothing to do with wills). It was absolutely horrific. I reported because I hoped MN had protocols in place for posts like this. No poster could have helped it was that bad. I also couldn't work out whether it was a true poster or a troll which was another reason to report.

If it was real, I really hope you managed to get the right sort of help

The samaritans are worse than useless though for people with serious mental health issues though.

That sounds like a good change of phrasing

The issue is from people that are In crisis and genuinely with nowhere to turn.
A&E sent them home, the nurse will ring tomorrow, that service discharged them, the other can't help,they're waiting for a referral, the meds are being reviewed, Samaritan's aren't answering and so on.

There might be help,there might not but they just need to make it through the night/day/week.

Ideally, yes people suffering from mental health issues should get timely,appropriate and adequate help and support from trained and qualified professionals. We all know that is not happening for quite a lot of people no matter how bad their situation is.

When the choice is a bunch of self-regulating vipers on the internet and no one, sometimes even the vipers are the better choice.

The Samaritans are not an advice service. If someone is suicidal, they won't talk them out of it. They'll listen, and they'll even listen to them dying and not intervene unless the person suddenly changes their mind. The Samaritans are great, but they're not for everyone.

The helplines that are advice services are harder to access.

I think like the begging threads, it would make sense for MN to jump with a general post signposting the OP to helpful links, but not to close the thread unless it was apparent the thread was not helping the OP.

I expect they do, the Samaritans have helped a lot of people..

Do wish they point somewhere other than samaratins.who can't/wont actually stop or persuade against suicide and will actually sit with u as you do it," with the offer to talk."

I dont know if they are being manipulative but had the intent been written in the opening post then the responses would have been very different.

I am not sure how easy it is to keep a thread visible for one user only.

I do think that type of thread should be deleted, and MN have (as other posters have said) taken advice on this before coming up with their policy. MN is not the place to come for support at that time, posters are not qualified to give the appropriate help that the OP needs. I appreciate that mental health services are not always as easy to access as we'd like, but there are times when only the professionals should be dealing with someone to ensure they get the right help for them - and what is right for one person may be different from what helped a poster.

I believe that MN do email the poster with details of organisations they can contact.

That is literally all that is required.

The latest thread was the OP wanting to urgently know about wills and letters of intent.

I replied, as the OP' original post gave no clue there was any suicidal intent.

Even the mentally ill can be disingenously manipulative.

*mn took advice from the samaritans

This was discussed at length in the past and as PP said, OP took advice from the Samaritans.

With the best will in the world, MN is not the kind of support platform people should go to if they’re contemplating ending their life. There are dedicated mental health resources for that.

And posters need to move away from this idea that MN may be someone’s only source of support and that without it posters are being put in danger. The reality is that so many of these types of threads will be preventing posters from seeking genuine MH advice, added to which, none of us are qualified to deal with someone who is suicidal, and it’s unfair to suggest that MN’ers need to be responsible for what they say in case they say the wrong thing, which is so easily done in those situations.

Also, someone posting their cusicide intentions could well be triggering to others who are in a similarly fragile state.

It is very difficult. I know the post you're talking about, and would hope that MN are messaging the OP behind the scenes.

This has been debated long and hard in the past. SoupDragon is correct - Mumsnet took advice on what to do with such threads and are evidently continuing to act on that advice.

I would imagine MNHQ has protocols they follow that are best practice for this situation.