I would agree with you if the cost was high. Running a suicide prevention hotline strikes me as a low cost preventative measure, moreso if you get actuarial/gruesome and take into account someone's dollar value as a human being (mid to high six figures for most people).

The real cost of doing something because something must be done is the false sense of satisfaction. That cost is potentially very high in this case.

An educated guess now is better then perfect data later.

We should of course continue to research ways to stem suicides and the conditions that cultivate someone feeling they have no other options.

And so is the potential cost of not doing anything, so what's your point?

You seem to conjecture that refering someone to a hotline raises the chance of that person commiting suicide, while AFAIK all the evidence points towards suicide hotlines being effective at reducing stress and suicidality.

Sorry, what? Not doing anything may result in a false sense of satisfaction?

> seem to conjecture that refering someone to a hotline raises the chance of that person commiting suicide

I don't conjecture this at all.

> all the evidence points towards suicide hotlines being effective at reducing stress and suicidality.

What evidence? The entire point of this subthread is that we don't have any evidence that this is true. Or do you have some evidence we don't know about?