We’ve talked about the evolution of dealing with death in the era of social networks. It can be sad, hopeful, helpful, unnerving, and a little weird to post and read posts on the page of someone who has just passed away. Even worse, sometimes, is reading the last few posts of when that person was alive. In the case of suicide, those posts can be heartbreakingly foreboding about what’s about to happen.

Facebook has just announced a new initiative that connects a person who might be writing suicidal posts to a crisis counselor. The function is controlled by your friends. If you write something that sounds troubling, your friends can click a link next to “comments” and report the post as a suicidal thought.

According to Social Barrel, once reported, Facebook then “emails the poster, encouraging them to call a telephone hotline number or initiate a confidential text chat with someone by clicking on a link.”