THE first non-governmental organization in Shanghai to combat suicides will be launched on September 4, right before the World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10 and more than a decade after the application was first sought.

About 20 psychoanalysts, psychologists and doctors of gastroenterology and respiratory departments in Shanghai will volunteer at the organization; they attended the first board meeting for the NGO on Thursday at Shanghai Normal University.

Publicizing the necessity of suicide intervention will be the top priority of the NGO. Experts are also planning on a direct intervention network.

“Suicide can definitely be prevented,” says Shan Huaihai, the man behind the Shanghai Non-Governmental Suicide Intervention Alliance, who is also a psychiatrist at Shanghai Xuhui District Mental Health Center.

He has been involved in suicide intervention for 11 years.

“There are signs for most suicide attempts, which enables intervention,” says Shan, who says his studies show that 90 percent of people who want to attempt suicide can be saved through comprehensive intervention.

However, few official organizations exist in China to face this challenge. Mental health centers and some hospitals with psychiatry departments were for many years the only suicide interventionists.

It was not until 2012 that Shanghai got its first 24-hour suicide hotline — “Hope 24 Hours” (5161-9995), run by the nonprofit Life Education and Crisis Intervention Center.

And though Shan started to apply for a NGO on suicide intervention in 2003, it was not until this year that he got approval.

A report by Hong Kong University released early this year provided good news for China. It reported that the nation’s suicide rate dropped 58 percent over a 20-year period; from 2002-2011, averagely 9.8 out of 100,000 people committed suicide.

A plunging suicide number among young rural women contributed to the total number dropping so much. The number of suicides among rural women below 35 years old plummeted an amazing 90 percent over a 20-year period — from 35 per 100,000 in the 1990s to just 3 per 100,000 in 2011.

While China’s numbers were falling, suicides were increasing globally. The World Health Organization estimates that the global suicide rate grew from 11.6 to 14 per 100,000 population from 2008 to 2013.

Experts say China’s drop is hardly a result of improving psychological services — whether through medicine or counseling. Instead it’s a benefit of the country’s mass urbanization, according to Ye Zhaohui, a Hong Kong scholar who initiated the report.

The huge population migration from rural areas to cities within the past couple of decades has helped to keep the young rural women away from their most convenient suicide tool — pesticide.

But that factor doesn’t explain the entire decrease and won’t help prevent suicide attempts in urban regions like Shanghai.

No specific number of suicides or attempts are reported in the city, as the subject has long been considered a taboo topic.

Shan says that there are hospitals receiving suicides almost every day.

“I am always puzzled why more and more people take suicide as their ultimate resort when they’re in trouble,” says Hui Xiaoping, head of the Psychological Crisis Intervention Center at Gongli Hospital.

He knows, however, that suicide can be part of the fallout of the nation’s hurtling progress when people cannot adjust.

Depression, of course, greatly contributes to the number of suicide attempts, although less so in China than in most of the world. About two-thirds of those trying suicide in China are found to be suffering from depression serious enough to be considered a mental illness, according to Shan. But that is much lower than the 90 percent estimated in high-income countries worldwide.

“Usually, people with mental disorders don’t just commit suicide suddenly. It takes time for them to reach the point of a suicide attempt,” says Shan.

“Even though they have developed an attempt, part of them often hesitate and hope to be saved. Professional intervention can help prevent them. And the earlier professional intervention gets involved, the more likely the suicide attempts will be stopped,” he adds.

One big problem: Only 7 percent of people with mental disorders have reached a psychologist before committing suicide. And many who survive suicide attempts simply disappear after leaving the hospital. They often leave fake contact numbers or simply refuse follow-up treatment and counseling, as they feel ashamed about what they have done.

That sense of shame rooted in many Chinese people’s minds prevents many of them from seeking help.

“It seems that the people who tried suicide just secretly led their lives, and secretly ended them,” says Shan.

None of Shirley Yang’s friends and family members was aware of her suicidal tendencies before she threw herself out of a 25th-floor window. The 36-year-old worked for a top financial organization in Lujiazui in Pudong. Even though suffering depression for years, she always appeared perfect in public, while very occasionally complaining about her fatigue to her husband at night.

Having a miscarriage months ago due to overwork was suspected to be a major reason for her suicide. But she left no traces, talking humorously at lunch with friends just days before ending her own life.

“I really need to talk to somebody” is a frequent request from callers through the “Hope-24-Hours” hotline, according to Luo Weiping, who is a volunteer counselor there.

“I can feel how they have suffered from keeping their problems a secret,” says Luo.

The volunteer counselors always try their best to help the callers, but if the callers chose to hang up and never call back again, there is nothing they can do. Ethical rules prevent them from calling back.

“It is so painful to hear the busy tone while knowing that somebody is terribly suffering out there,” says Luo.

Patients’ hesitation in searching for help makes it especially difficult for counselors to get involved in the first place, while the absence of mental intervention at comprehensive hospitals often leaves any possible clues of high-risk groups slipping away.

“Statistics show that without proper psychological treatment, at least 35 percent of the survivors will try to commit suicide again,” says Shan.

Real-time crisis intervention is crucially important to prevent their second suicide attempts. However, few emergency departments of comprehensive hospitals in Shanghai can provide such intervention and treatment.

Most of the comprehensive hospitals in Shanghai don’t have psychiatry departments. And no more than 1 percent of the doctors are equipped with clinical psychology evaluation or treatment training, which makes it almost impossible for immediate crisis intervention.

“These people get physically healed in the hospital, but not mentally. If we doctors don’t make follow-ups, keep records and give them proper psychological counseling and medication, they might hurt themselves again and again. And there’ll be always one day when their attempts succeed,” say Hui, with the Psychological Crisis Intervention Center at Gongli Hospital.