News
Email
Print
Crisis lines busier in '08
Bad economy credited; local line an exception
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: December 27, 2008
Layoffs, foreclosures, cutbacks -- there have been plenty of grim economic statistics out there this holiday season. Perhaps the grimmest one of all is that calls to suicide hot lines have soared.
Mental-health experts said that the sour economy has turned what usually manifests as seasonal blues into a full-blown crisis.
Hopeline of North Carolina Inc. in Raleigh had a 50 percent increase of calls to its crisis line in October and November, said Courtney Atwood, the agency's executive director. The agency averaged about 400 calls a month in October and November.
"We get calls from people who are suicidal because the stock market is down," Atwood said. "They have lost money and are not able to provide for their family. It is just magnified this time of year."
Likewise, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline said that it is getting 35 percent more calls -- nearly 50,000 a month this year compared with about 37,000 last year.
In Winston-Salem, however, Family Services Inc. has not seen an increase in calls from people who are hurting in the recession, said Mike Turner, the agency's chief operating officer.
Its crisis line gets 800 to 1,000 calls a month.
People who call need help with depression and other mental illnesses, Turner said. They are often alone and feel hopeless. Many callers don't have any family support or are alienated from their relatives.
During the holidays, "they are more stressed, and they feel more disconnected and alone," he said.
In Los Angeles, Kita Curry, the president of the Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, which operates a suicide hot line, said, "I've been doing this for 10 years, and this is the worst I've seen it,"
Last year, Curry said, the hot line got an average of 1,500 calls a month. Now the total routinely tops 2,000 and sometimes runs as high as 2,400.
"What's even more noticeable than the increase in call volume is that the intensity of the calls has gone up," said Sandri Kramer, who began as a hot-line volunteer at the Hirsch center about 13 years ago and now is the program director.
"A year ago, many of the calls we would get were from people with mental illnesses," Kramer said.
"Now many of the calls are from people who have lost their home, or their job, or who still have a job but can't meet the cost of living." Kramer said that callers these days appeared to be further along in pondering their own demise, rather than just grappling with sadness or confusion.
"The most important thing is to ask for help," said Ken Kondo, a spokesman for the L.A. County Department of Mental Health. "Not everyone can do that."
■ Journal reporter John Hinton contributed to this article.
■ Need help? Family Services' phone number is 336-723-4357. Hopeline of North Carolina's phone number is 919-231-4525. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 800-273-8255.
Email
Print
