With younger generations using mobile phones less for actual conversation and more for text messaging, US suicide prevention organisations are setting up ways that let distraught youths seek help that way.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among teenagers and college-age adults in the United States.
The statistic makes a text messaging initiative - started this month by Samaritans Inc of Massachusetts to supplement the more traditional phone help line - a natural, says executive director Steve Mongeau.
Nearly 5300 US residents younger than 24 took their own lives in 2013, the most recent year for which data are available, according to the Washington, DC-based American Association of Suicidology.
"We want you, as a person in need, to be able to use the communication platform you feel most comfortable with," Mongeau said.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs has offered text help for suicidal veterans for several years.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline also offers text messaging help at many of its more than 160 crisis centres nationwide.
That organisation found that nearly 40 per cent of people reaching out for help using its online chat option indicated they would not feel comfortable seeking help by phone.
Young people may not be able to articulate their feelings in a phone conversation, said Dr Jill Harkavy-Friedman, vice president of research at the America Foundation for Suicide Prevention, yet their emotions became crystal clear in a text conversation.
"What we found is that parents would look at their children's phones after a suicide and see all the distress their children were experiencing," she said.
People texting the Samaritans are connected with a volunteer trained in the use of text messaging, and familiar with the grammatical quirks, abbreviations and emoticons used in text messaging.
In fact, most of the organisation's volunteers are under 30, with some as young as 16, and are already well-versed in text messaging, Mongeau says.
Text messages are also more private, he notes.
"Say you're in a public place, or on a school bus, you can text back and forth without being overheard," he said.
A few people have already taken advantage of the texting option, Mongeau says, even though the organisation is still trying to get the word out.
Eventually he expects to engage in as many 300 text conversations per day, or about the same as the number of phone calls the organisation receives daily.
"People just want someone to confide in without judgment," he said.
* For support and information about suicide prevention, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
