The real cost of doing something because something must be done is the false sense of satisfaction. That cost is potentially very high in this case.
We should of course continue to research ways to stem suicides and the conditions that cultivate someone feeling they have no other options.
You seem to conjecture that refering someone to a hotline raises the chance of that person commiting suicide, while AFAIK all the evidence points towards suicide hotlines being effective at reducing stress and suicidality.
> seem to conjecture that refering someone to a hotline raises the chance of that person commiting suicide
I don't conjecture this at all.
> all the evidence points towards suicide hotlines being effective at reducing stress and suicidality.
What evidence? The entire point of this subthread is that we don't have any evidence that this is true. Or do you have some evidence we don't know about?