Opinions openly requested, sorry if this seems a bit heavy. Recently a friend went through an ordeal. His sister was suffering from clinical depression, partly brought on by the loss of their father. She is a nice young girl, but impressionable and needed answers nobody could give her. So she called, lets call em' 'National Psychics Live' (not this company's name for legal reasons) who offer 'real psychic services' at the equivalent of $3 a minute. She sounds older than she is (19). Sometimes they would ring her, for a few minutes, then kindly suggest she call back sometime if she needed to talk further. Time passed, the phone bill came. She was lucky to survive her suicide attempt. This company has been preying on people for years. They have great lawyers and as 'psychic powers' cannot legally be disproved, they stay in business. They use religious arguments also. Reporters have proven they employ, anybody. I have a plan, but I don’t know if it’s a good one. I am thinking of setting up a premium rate number and offer counselling services for depressed people. I believe I can get a psychiatrist to 'work for me' so it stays nice and legal. The number will be set up so it is permanently engaged and recommends the real freephone service, so nobody loses money. I will then seek as much media publicity as possible. I plan to avoid any 'direct' references to this company. Good or bad idea? I can't really ask people's opinion in this jurisdiction, as I could get into deep legal trouble.
Depends on how its done If it's done for-profit, it is one of the most evil propositions I've ever heard. As a proper 501(c)(3) entity in the US, I wouldn't have much of a problem with it, although I would ask you to consider: Hi ... I'm depressed ... I think I want to die ... yes, yes, I understand the charges. My mother once asked me to see a psychologist, in order to "have someone to talk to". I looked her in the eye and said, "Has it really come down to tha? What, with all my friends and family, I have to pay money just to have someone to talk to?" For the most part, I think a premium rate suicide hotline would attract desperate faux-demonstrative "attention beggar" suicidals. I'm not sure that even a 501(c)(3) entity could escape the notion of perpetuating the problems it seeks to alleviate. :m:, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Hi tiassa, no, not for profit. It will be quite expensive to set up, for me only (I can afford it). I would word the ads very carefully so they don't give the wrong idea (Wow! how Evil, now I'm really gonna kill myself) to serious cases. The point of doing it would be to generate SERIOUS bad publicity for this company, and possibly prevent them from harming others.
