> If you're someone I know well enough to judge the credibility of a plan to kill yourself (which could mean "complete stranger" is the plan is particularly credible), and I become aware of such a plan, I would feel obligated to ensure you saw a doctor, with the word "ensure" chosen carefully.
The scenario I am describing to you is one in which I was seeing a doctor, regularly (once a week). I was already getting help. The only assistance I was not getting was inpatient, take-your-rights-away-for-a-while forceable assistance.
My opinion is that your attitude about this is too categorical.
I have been in a position where I called a friend because I was frighteningly close to actually doing it. This is after many years of very aggressively pursuing professional mental help in therapy / outpatient settings (which all my close friends are aware of).
If my friend had called 911 after I asked them not to, I would have considered it a betrayal. It would have set in motion a set of events that would cause extreme distress for me, and (I am fairly certain) not provided any greater relief than the years of medications and talk therapy I was already pursuing.
And it would have breached the trust I feel in one of my closest friends in a way that I'm not sure could have been recovered. I believe this would have put me on a path towards having distance from my friends, and being more imperiled overall.
If I couldn't trust my friend not to call 911, I never would have called them. Unless that national suicide hotline above promises absolute confidentiality and not involving authorities, I guarantee I will never call it.
Everyone is different and I'm not giving any advice here. I'm just glad my friend didn't take the hard-line stance on this that you do.
The scenario I am describing to you is one in which I was seeing a doctor, regularly (once a week). I was already getting help. The only assistance I was not getting was inpatient, take-your-rights-away-for-a-while forceable assistance.