• In Han Song, Jung-Won You, Ji Eun Kim, Jung-Soo Kim, Se Won Kwon, and Jong-Ik Park.
• 1 Graduate School of Social Welfare, Health & Mental Health Lab, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
• Crisis. 2017 May 1; 38 (3): 195-201.

BackgroundOne of the critical measures in suicide prevention is promoting public awareness of crisis hotline numbers so that individuals can more readily seek help in a time of crisis. Although public service advertisements (PSA) may be effective in raising the rates of both awareness and use of a suicide hotline, few investigations have been performed regarding their effectiveness in South Korea, where the suicide rate is the highest among OECD countries.AimsThe goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a television PSA campaign.MethodWe analyzed a database of crisis phone calls compiled by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare to track changes in call volume to a crisis hotline that was promoted in a TV campaign. We compared daily call counts for three periods of equal length: before, during, and after the campaign.ResultsThe number of crisis calls during the campaign was about 1.6 times greater than the number before or after the campaign. Relative to the number of suicide-related calls in the previous year, the number of calls during the campaign period surged, displaying a noticeable increase.ConclusionThe findings confirmed that this campaign had a positive impact on call volume to the suicide hotline.

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