We take threats of suicide seriously, and we treat mental health like any other health concern: Compassionately, as privately as possible, and we work to ensure your dignity.
But with a suicide threat, we “err on the side of caution” – that means, if we think your words indicate serious self-harm is likely, we will take steps (even if the word “suicide” is not used).
We will:
- Contact the police in the city you are in, provide your address, and request they do a “welfare check”
- Notify your listed next of kin
- Message you contact info for local support services (eg, “life line”)
We will do these things as sensitively as possible and we will not mention the nature of the work you’re doing with us. But we will communicate the severity of the issue. For example, when contacting your next of kin in this situation we might say,
We’re with Mary in Barcelona, and she’s having a mental crisis. We worry she is suicidal, so we’re working to check her in to a support hospital right away. We’ll stay with her until we know she’s being well cared for. I’ll reach out in an hour or so to let you know more.
A suicide story
In 2016, a model emailed the Model Liaison saying she planned to commit suicide that night. That same night, she was due to leave her home in Montreal and fly to New York City for a shoot with us. She had not supplied her next of kin information yet (we now require this before the model departs their home city, for this reason).
We responded to her email with the contact info for local “life line” support services, and SMS’d the model as well (with no response). We contacted the police in her home city – it turned out we had an incomplete address for her – the building address, but not apartment number – so they could not take action (we now require full addresses for this reason).
We contacted the airport she was due to board at, and the airport she was due to land at. They took our report seriously. The departure airport staff met the model at the gate before she boarded the plane, and organised for her to be admitted to hospital.
The model was extremely angry with us for taking these steps. She was alive, but refused to work with us in the future.
We feel comfortable that we did the right thing. In a review of the events, we all agreed we should do the same thing in the future.
