Found this article:

https://www.healthyplace.com/suicide/how-does-a-suicide-prev...

"It is difficult to gather strict evidence about the effectiveness of suicide prevention hotlines, but Dr. Madelyn Gould of Columbia University found that of Lifeline callers:

    12% of suicidal callers said that talking to someone at Lifeline prevented them from harming or killing themselves

    Almost 50% followed through with a counselor's referral to seek emergency services or contacted mental health services

    About 80% said that Lifeline had something to do with keeping them alive"

Not a ton, but initial studies do seem to suggest they push people from "executing on a plan with the means to do so" to not. Some recent meta-analysis I read seemed to indicate there needs to be more research done, but it's not something you really want to A/B test.

If I don’t ask this well, please be kind. Are you saying there is evidence hotlines back people off of dangerous levels of intent, or that there is evidence they play some role in dismantling the means—convincing to remove weapons and pills, for example, so that the strong suicidal desire is less likely to lead to action? Either way it’s good news.

From my initial readings I _believe_ it's the backing out of intent. "Making action plans" and "provision of referrals" has also been mentioned so it could be both! I'm only looking at the lit reviews at the moment though.

In my experience, the "talking off the ledge" was always the most important part in the moment. I found that the follow up from someone who knows what they're doing helped keep me away from the ledge too.

I feel like a lot more work could be done in this area, but I'm not in psych and I wouldn't know where to contribute.