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Nice post. It reminds me that I want to consider this option. By the way, someone once tried to very roughly estimate the cost-effectiveness of volunteering at a suicide hotline here.
I’m the author of that post. Here is an edit I just added:
I don’t have better numbers than what I came up with here, but the overall rationale seems very similar to that of vegan leafletting, and I just don’t believe their numbers. I think people are in general likely to overestimate the effect of conversations they just had.
None of this means volunteering can’t be effective, or is worse than a given volunteer’s best alternative, but I don’t think “I felt helpful” is strong data.
Thank you, and for including the link to the other post.
Thanks for writing this up! I think mental health is a really important cause area, and I am always eager to think about ways to reduce the burden of suffering it causes. I also think more EAs should try to find volunteering opportunities that can help them reconnect with their values and have an immediate impact on their community, and this seems like a great opportunity for that.
That being said, if your estimates are correct (100 hours of volunteer work leading to one life saved), and if crisis lines could be staffed at normal call center wages (~$15/hr in the US, implying $1,500/life saved), that would suggest this is more cost-effective than the most effective interventions that Givewell has identified, and many orders of magnitude more effective than most governments’ current healthcare spending. Because of this, I think we should probably have very low confidence in crisis hotlines being this effective at saving lives, at least until more research is done that suggests otherwise.
Still plenty of good reasons to consider this opportunity, though. Especially the point you mention about reducing the immediate distress of callers. In my mind, that is probably the most important benefit that these services provide!
I don’t think a median call center worker would do well at a suicide hotline (source: I’m a former volunteer). I leave most call center interactions feeling vaguely bad, and handling returns is emotionally easier than helping suicidal people.
Separately, you need a lot of people, because It’s hard enough to find people who are good at it for 4 hours/week and almost no one can do it full time.
A quick google suggests the average hourly wage of a social worker in the US is $29/hr — would they be better prepared/trained to do well at this work?
I think this point holds as long as we grant that the estimated cost to staff a hotline is anywhere within this order of magnitude, suggesting that this is one of the most cost-effective mental healthcare + life-saving interventions we’ve ever identified, particularly in wealthy countries.
Of course, the specifics of implementation would be way more challenging than just writing a check. It would only be if the cost of staffing a hotline with competent employees came out to be 10x or 100x more than the $15-30 range that I think this argument wouldn’t apply.
Thanks for your comment (and the link)! I agree that more research is needed. My estimates are just estimates. They’re based on my experience taking calls and supervising other crisis supporters for nine years at one organization taking calls from people with any sort of crisis, and about 18 months of volunteering at a second organization which was not directly focused on mental health but still received calls from very distressed people. Helping non-suicidal domestic violence victims increase their safety is another area where there is potential for life-saving interventions by crisis supporters. But again, more research is needed.
I agree with your analysis, but would use the total cost of hiring an employee for one hour’s productive work including taxes, overhead, training time, benefits if any, etc. I think you may have used a nominal hourly wage.
Thanks for your comment.