Kinda sounds like you don’t have an answer.
Sure, if your bestie is having a tough time then of course you’ll talk to them and do whatever it takes not to call EMS.
If it’s a “casual acquaintance” as I said your options kinda diminish.
I called EMS for my neighbor once. A few days later his mother came to thank me profusely.
I’m not in the US though so things work a bit differently here.
They are still traumatically carting people away, depriving them of liberty, and not really helping.
Obviously the “not really helping” is the critical part of that statement.
In many cases they help a great deal.
“Depriving people of liberty” is also an appeal to emotion. While that does happen briefly in some cases, it’s not really the norm. I’m sure you’ll find that any one in healthcare is only going to do that if the patient is at risk of harming themselves or others. The alternative is allowing people the liberty to harm themselves or others.