America is not a society where anything happens without money.
In eastern countries, there are easy to go community centers like temples, churches, local social organizations, festivals etc., all for free. Just go in. There is always someone to reach out to. There are always welcoming people.
I know you want to believe that the world is a good place and someone who's suffering enough to consider death as an alternative can be helped easily and cheaply, but that just isn't the reality we live in. My experience is that free help is a bunch of minimum-effort volunteers. Depression can be a very complicated thing and it isn't well understood by very many people, often even the expensive professionals just throw drugs at it.
I can certainly think of possible cases where the mental help needed might involve more than a help line or support group long term. Heck there might even be cases when physical health help is what is unavailable in the long term -- chronic illnesses considerably raise the risk of suicide. (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170612094032.h...) A help line is probably not going to resolve a chronic illness.
I know the original comment was at the individual level, but from a big picture perspective I do think "money" definitely matters. Specifically, the United States health care system lacks compared to other rich nations when it comes to coverage and accessibility. Based on an ecological study I found (https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/16669716) it seems like there's a definite link between suicide rates and this issue -- factors like funding for mental health and insurance coverage matter a lot here.
Wrong. You're conflating crisis care with on-going care. Crisis care maybe free, but on-going care is definitely expensive in the US. Crisis care is no substitute for on-going care because it's a bandaid.
This is almost like the exact opposite of the reality of eastern and western culture. Healthcare for example is full of free clinics where people get free care. I worked at one.
Also, the differences in religious institutions in east and west is also vast. Food, shelter, and healtchare are provided for free by thousands of churches in the United States, I'm not familiar with anything similar in the East and I've spent many years there.
The people in US churches are welcoming. But the society isn't. The individual under duress is always losing the time value of money by going to Church instead of bettering their financial condition.
Heck, an entire political party blames individuals under duress for their own financial condition.
This would not happen as much in the east. While time value of money exists, life so cheap that people can take time off, anytime in their life, just go to a church and heal. And no political party will blame them for their financial condition. They will always get resources from other people, for free, just because they are in need.
Money seems irrelevant in this scenario, but there are plenty of free services that will assist you. I also doubt friends and family will charge you to talk to them.
