WSJ Story on Suicide Hotlines

[stoiccactus]

One in Six Calls to National Suicide Prevention Lifeline End Without Reaching a Counselor

A new 988 number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that goes into service on July 16 relies on call centers that are already overstretched.

www.wsj.com

The network of about 200 call centers that answers calls to the line is already under some strain. Some 1.5 million of 9.2 million calls between 2016 and 2021 were abandoned by callers or disconnected before a counselor could respond, according to data provided by Vibrant and analyzed by the Journal. In 11 states, a majority of calls were routed to one of 13 national backup centers from local centers too overtaxed to answer.

Yikes. Probably no surprise to anyone here

Annual call volumes to the current 10-digit line increased by 92% from 2016 to 2021. In Louisiana, the in-state answer rate of calls to the crisis line dropped to 47% in 2021 from 91% six years earlier. "Our call volume was so great that we had to back off a lot of our calls and send them back to the backup centers," said LaVondra Dobbs, chief executive officer of VIA Link, a crisis center in Louisiana.