Calls to suicide hotlines have increased by almost half amid the economic crisis, a suicide-prevention group says.
Suicide Prevention Services - a non-government-funded group - handled 8,557 calls in the past three months, a 45 per cent increase over the same period last year, a spokeswoman said.
Last month, about 18 per cent of calls were related to financial difficulties but such calls had risen by 78.5 per cent from a year earlier, she said.
Elsie Chien Man-hung, deputy director of the group, said calls for counselling had increased sharply - about 40 per cent year on year.
'Many were disheartened in the few months [since the economic crisis broke out in September] because they were sacked or lost all their savings on the stock market,' she said.
It was not only the callers who were under pressure, Ms Chien said. Their families were suffering too.
The group said that calls related to family or interpersonal relationships had also increased by two-thirds in the past three months year on year - and the root cause of those problems was financial difficulties.
