ALBANY, NY \u2014 A Johnstown woman is raising concerns about the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline after she said a crisis counselor ended their call before she felt her situation was resolved.<\/p>\n
The 988 Crisis and Suicide Hotline is run by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The agency\u2019s website describes its operators as \u201cskilled, compassionate crisis counselors.\u201d In an emergency, a crisis counselor can forward a call to 911.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Lalli, 49, said she called 988 Wednesday night because she needed someone to listen and help her through what she was struggling with emotionally, including anxiety, feeling overwhelmed and PTSD. Lalli said she was not feeling suicidal at the time she called, but she was afraid a panic attack could lead to suicidal ideations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have not had one in 10 years,\u201d Lalli said of panic attacks. \u201cI had one in July. It went for two days straight non-stop. I was in the ER.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lalli said it was the first time she had ever called any kind of help hotline. She said she spoke with a 988 crisis counselor for about 25 minutes, but the call abruptly ended when the counselor said she needed to go.<\/p>\n
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website says 988 offers support for mental health and substance use problems, not just suicide. The website does not mention if or when a crisis counselor can hang up the phone.<\/p>\n
After the 988 call ended, Lalli said she panicked and called the St. Mary\u2019s Hospital Amsterdam crisis hotline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I was alone and felt alone, and this woman was yelling at me, telling me, ‘they don’t have to help you,’\u201d Lalli said. \u201cTwo places I did not get help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lalli said she is now working with a case manager from St. Mary\u2019s Hospital to file an official complaint against the crisis line.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I can tell you, if this was my first time ever experiencing a mental health crisis,\u201d Lalli said. \u201cI don’t know what would have happened. But I got through it, and I’m still getting through it. And I will.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Mary\u2019s said it takes any concerns regarding the hotline seriously, and that patients with concerns about their care can also contact the hospital\u2019s patient advocate, whose number is listed on its website.<\/p>\n
Requests for comment were also sent to the Office of Mental Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which both manage the hotline. No response was received.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY, NY \u2014 A Johnstown woman is raising concerns about the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline after she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[134,554,555,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-619348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}