Does a TOS on a suicide prevention line feel a bit coercive to anyone else?
this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2025
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Did you read them? The link explains the terms fairly clearly. It’s not a 50 page Eula from some software company, it’s like half a page and written in plain language
Like it or not mental health services have liability involved. As an ethical service or practitioner it is important to make these liabilities clear to you as part of informed consent to use the service
I do the same thing when people have their first outpatient mental health appointment with me. Explanation that costs incurred may be your responsibility, that while there is confidentiality it has limitations, that the service is voluntary, grievance procedures, expectations for you, etc.
It appears they spell out the same:
Costs: it is a free service but they make it clear they cannot be held responsible if your carrier charges you for text messages. You may also be billed by your carrier if 988 has to call 911 on your behalf. They may submit referrals that result in billing depending on where you live.
Confidentiality: they reserve the right to escalate to emergency services (mobile crisis or 911, depending on area) which requires disclosure of PHI if they determine there is a risk of imminent harm or disclosure of abuse. This is pretty standard and I have the same caveat
They clarify that they are not a substitute for a provider and that they are not responsible for treatment decisions you do or do not take as a result of conversations (eg if they give you a referral to outpatient and you take it and it sucks, they don’t take culpability)
This is necessary because if they do not do this they will be endlessly sued by people and the service will be closed overnight. Remember that even if they win every lawsuit (which they wouldn’t) it still costs money to defend from lawsuits. With this they can basically have frivolous lawsuits easily thrown out (eg someone suing because they are upset about a referral, someone upset because they were suicidal and had the cops called) saving a tremendous amount of resources
Not OP but I'm personally not a fan of bit.ly (a private corpo) for what could've easily been a shortened link on their own domain that redirects to the page.
I do agree with you on this, I think bit.ly and link obfuscation is bullshit
In their defense their domain is https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ which is a bit much. But registering a second short domain on a weird tld can’t cost all that much per year