• Government
• Profession
• Business
• Opinion
• Health

• Health reform
• H1N1
• P4P
• EMRs
• Medicare
• Liability
• AMA House
• » More

• Book Excerpt
• Business Pitch
• Meetings
• » More

• Contract Language
• Ethics Forum
• In the Courts
• Practice Management
• Technically Speaking
• » More

• Issue dates
• Regions
• Health plans
• Sections
• News briefs
• Columns
• Editorials
• Letters
• Writers
• Other years

• Search tips
• E-mail alert
• Radio
• RSS
• Mobile
• Subscribe
• Institutions
• Staff directory
• Advertising
• Permissions
• Reprints
• News media
• Site guide
• Useful links
• About
• Premium
• Contact

Suicide hotline saved at the 11th hour

Funding problems at one help line nearly silenced it, but agencies are working to ensure that crisis calls are always answered.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, amednews staff. Sept. 11, 2006.

• PRINT|
• E-MAIL|
• RESPOND|
• REPRINTS|
• SHARE

The National Hopeline Network, the oldest nationwide suicide prevention hotline, nearly shut down at the end of August because of a budget shortfall.

But, in order to make sure that those in crisis who reach out for help get it, the board of the Kristin Brooks Hope Center, the organization that runs the line, voted to donate their number, 800-SUICIDE, to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which has in turn agreed to continue to operate it.

Mental health advocates also are taking steps to disseminate widely information about the 2-year-old National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. This number, 800-273-TALK, routes callers to a similar network of crisis centers.

"The most important thing for anybody to know is that there is a number that they can call 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said John Draper, PhD, director of the Lifeline program.

The 800-SUICIDE line came close to being disconnected Aug. 25 because organizers failed to raise the more than $60,000 needed to pay its outstanding phone bill.

The reasons for the funding shortfall are murky. Officials from the Kristin Brooks Hope Center maintained that SAMHSA owed thousands of dollars from a grant that ended in 2004. The agency denies this.

Experts suggest, however, that the outcome -- that resources continue to exist to help people in crisis -- is the key message in this story.

"There's no doubt in my mind that having a well-known, widely recognized national hotline has saved lives," said David Fassler, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington. "Hopefully, the various organizations will find a way to ensure that the service continues to operate with as much continuity as possible."