Effectiveness of fixed landline crisis phone boxes in preventing suicides: Evidence from Australia and the United States

Abstract

Abstract – Aims – Fixed phone boxes enabling calls to a suicide crisis line have been established at a number of public sites where suicides occur. However, the evidence for the effectiveness of this intervention on suicide deaths is not well established. This study examined the effectiveness of fixed phone boxes by comparing suicide rates during the pre-intervention and post-intervention periods. Methods – Using suicide mortality data from three sites in Australia and three sites in the United States, Poisson regression models were used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) at each site. Pooled IRR (pIRR) was then calculated for all sites using a ran..