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That’s the rub: They are precisely the ones that lost the funding.
On Tuesday, the Trevor Project, a LGBTQ suicide prevention nonprofit that contracts with Health and Human Services to respond to the calls, received a stop-work order, effective July 17.
Damn. I saw someone had posed this on Substack in response to the Canadian LGBTQ+ hotline misinformation, so I was excited to share it for people who may need it. Thanks for the correction.
They’re also the ones that were picking up the phone under the program that was just cut.
OK please bear with me – who in the name of god feels more comfortable or better or soothed about their life by calling a stranger, who knows nothing about their situation, who has a little button that calls the cops on them and could get them involuntarily hospitalized or shot… I mean seriously I’m an introvert and whenever I’m that depressed I’m not exactly…outgoing.
A Hotline like this is for desperate people in need of help. Have you ever been so desperate about anything that you thought of ending your life? No need to answer.
I am an outpatient therapist who specializes in queer clients and I have had many clients utilize the Trevor project and translifeline over the years. They often don’t call crisis supports because they do support mental health issues outside of ideation
That said no situation is perfect but in many locations they don’t even call the cops anymore because many states fund mobile crisis response units that have therapists respond instead of police.
But frankly this is the nature of crisis response. I worked in crisis response for years before shifting to outpatient. There is both a legal liability and moral obligation to do something if someone is truly a danger to themselves or others. Suicidal ideation is overwhelming a transient state, eg if we keep you safe during the worst of it you will eventually consider it a very good thing that you did not commit suicide. This is not conjecture, this is evidence based.
I will admit that there are bad hospitals and police response can be quite poor or even deadly. At the same time it is also an issue that is heightened in terms of awareness. Thousands of people per day are processed into inpatient per day on involuntary holds, cops shooting them or serious abuse happen fairly rarely. Obviously any incidence is completely unacceptable and we need to continue to highlight issues and strive for reforms, but to paint an involuntary hold as an inevitable abusive or even fatal encounter is seriously misleading and potentially dissuades people from pursuing support that may be desperately needed in crisis.
I do understand your response. We need do decouple the overwhelming majority of crisis mental health response from police (though response to situations with firearms adds complexity and currently mobile crisis will not respond to these at least around me), fund more mobile crisis response programs nationwide, fund more interim partial support programs that exist between inpatient and outpatient (community supports/iop/php/new modalities altogether), overhaul therapist training and supervision, etc. but in the meantime we have the system we have and we have to work within the constraints of that framework while we continue to push and advocate for change
There are many who don’t even have that choice. If it’s not a stranger, then it’s nobody. I know I have people to talk to when I’m down, but it’ll be very selfish and will show lack of empathy if I think everyone has that luxury.
I don’t have any significant mental health issues, but I can see the appeal.
Sometimes you just really need to get stuff off of your chest. Ideally you have people close to you that you can vent to, but some people don’t, and even if you do, sometimes they’re just the wrong kind of people to have that sort of conversation with.
And just being able to say something out loud can help you figure things out on your own. Sowe programmers and such do “rubber duck debugging” where they just explain the code and the issues they’re having to a rubber duck or stuffed animal or something on their desk, and the act of talking through it sort of engages different parts of your brain and often that’s enough to find the issue (I remember one time back in high school I was taking a programming class, I was presenting my project to the class, it worked, but it was a mess of ugly spaghetti code, and as I was up there explaining it out loud for the first time, something just clicked and I realized how I could have done it a much better way.) Some people feel really stupid talking to a rubber duck though (especially if it’s someone who’s already afraid that people think they’re “crazy”) so having an actual human to talk to could be really helpful for them.
And a lot of these things have other resources they can offer. They may be able to help you find a support group, therapist, housing assistance, have some sort of a crisis team they can send out to meet with you, etc.
And for what it’s worth, I work in 911 dispatch. This will vary a lot around the country of course, but while we certainly do get a decent amount of calls from crisis hotlines, they’re basically all for people who are in imminent danger of harming themselves. And the number of those calls I get is absolutely tiny in comparison to the amount of calls I’ve transferred to 988 and our police never so much as drove past the callers house.
Holy fuck this might be the most ignorant opinion I’ve seen shared on lemmy
Ignorant? Idk. Privileged? Yeah I’m thinking so.
Ok so you might not use the service therefore nobody should get to use it
they - a self proclaimed introvert - wouldn’t use a service for talking to people, thus everyone - mostly extroverts - shouldn’t get to use it
yup solid logic there
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? The hotline and text line saves countless lives
This isn’t just a hot take. It’s a dumpster fire.
I see Bobby’s moved away from MAHA and onto MSCWMAHABOITNP
Make straight cis white male Americans healthy again but only if they’re not poor. Really rolls off the tongue, especially if you’ve got a brain worm.
Wonder how Cheryl Hines still justifies being married to a mass murderer.
You know sometimes you wonder how come Hitler and the gang was just doing fucked up shit and no one stopped and then you see the slide that the US is in, day after day, more and more straight up evil shit being done and half the country probably even loves it and then you kinda start to understand.
This is absolute bullshit! These vile fuckers want to kill kids! How sick in the head do you have to be to align with these motherfuckers in 2025??? Pure evil!
The cruelty is the point. Never forget for even a second that these people are fucking monsters.
rfk jr needs more people infected with worms.
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It wont help everyone but people should be aware PFLAG offers peer counseling for queer people and loved ones, though its mainly aimed at people struggling with a loved one coming out (which incidentally, if thats you or someone you know, getting that help is could save the queer person’s life)
Yep. If you need it too, you can pretend to live in Australia and use our free E-Headspace services.
Republicans keep killing kids :(
I’m only surprised they didn’t:
A. Turn it into some sort of conversion therapy scheme, or…
B. Shut it down on day one.
If you need someone to talk to dm me
Your life matters
You’re perfect just the way you are
Seconded
Thirded
Love in an age of hatred. Now that’s fucking punk rock.
IM JUST AN OLD TIME PUNK ROCKER SO IM D.I.Y. TIL I D.I.E. 4 U
Thanks
That’s really kind of you. Can I have a hug?
I am definitely not qualified for this, but shit, I will also help if I can. That said, I’m AM qualified to say that (hypothetically) trump and the people making this decision deserve to directly experience the fates they are wishing on the others they are so afraid to recognize as the genuine and valid human beings that they are.
“This is a death sentence potentially to thousands of youth across the United States.”
Yes, they want all LGBTQ people dead.
The pro death party at it again.