2,500 people contacted the Telephone of Hope during the first semester of the year

PalmaThe Balearic Islands' Hope Telephone has handled 2,503 calls in the first semester of this year, almost 50% more than in the same period last year, which represents a daily average of 14 requests for help. The organization's spokesperson, Lino Salas, explained this Wednesday at a press conference that, specifically, the majority profile of the people who call are adult women who are married, separated, divorced, or widowed, aged 45 to 60.

Specifically, most of the calls were due to self-harm, existential crises, or eating disorders, although also due to gender-based violence, grief, or social problems such as migration, social exclusion, and housing. During the first semester, 14 people were assisted for non-suicidal self-harm (double the number in the same period last year). Salas pointed out that people who self-harm do so to stop "anxiety".

Regarding people who have suffered an existential crisis, "there are people who have a job, housing, and food", but suffer from a void that must be intervened in so as not to fall "into suicidal behaviors". Meanwhile, eating disorders originate from cases of bullying and cyberbullying suffered by the victims.

The entity has assisted 32 women who came to it due to sexist violence, although it also highlighted that there have been men who have contacted the Hope Telephone for feeling guilty about the climate of rejection generated in the family environment. In total, 66 people who requested help for suicidal themes have been assisted (in the same period last year there were 47). According to Salas, this is due to the fact that the service is reaching more people every time.