Mental Health Support

However, if one is not holding a phone with one hand and a gun or knife against the temple in the other, they don't seem willing to do much, if anything.

Also, according to those who I have spoken with who did use such a service, they kept trying to get the person to tell them where they were, so that they could 'intervene'. (The person was using a cheap burner phone and, for some reason, they could not get it 'pinged'.)

Police interventions for those suffering from mental health episodes are not exactly... smooth... most of the time, so using such a 'resource' is problematic at best.

(I have been literally cussed out by suicide line operators because I was not holding a hostage or standing with my throat already cut. I have been lectured by suicide line operators because I was not so despondent that I was in tears and inarticulately screaming at them. So, in my experience, those things are a waste of time if you want help before you start your 'rampage'. Which is about as silly a thing as I have ever heard, since that is the best time to get help.)