Crisis hot lines face more calls, fewer resources

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — As more recession-racked people turn to crisis hot lines for help, more hot-line operators say they’re running short of staff and money.

Calls tend to be longer, because profound problems are more common, especially in hard-hit communities. At the Crisis Call Center in Reno, Nev., for example, suicide-related calls rose 43 percent last year, according to Debbie Gant-Reed, the crisis-line coordinator.

Calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which fields more than 1,500 calls a day from people in crisis nationwide and refers them to local counselors, increased 27 percent from January 2008 to January 2009, hot-line press aide Carrie Ainsworth said.

Local counselors are in short supply, but the agencies and programs to which counselors used to refer desperate clients are in trouble, too.