LOS ANGELES \u2014 After the federal government cut funding for the service, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed its Department of Mental Health to develop a pilot program restoring services tailored for LGBTQ+ youth to a suicide-prevention hotline.<\/p>\n
A national suicide-prevention hotline has been accessible by dialing 988 since 2022. The following year, an option was added to the hotline to provide specialized counseling to LGBTQ+ youth, who could press the number 3 on their phones to access the service. The service had been provided locally by The Trevor Project, a nonprofit based in West Hollywood.<\/p>\n
In July, however, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration eliminated funding for the \u201cPress 3\u2019\u2019 option for LGBTQ+ youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Press 3 option was a lifeline, and losing it has been devastating,\u201d Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement following Tuesday\u2019s board vote. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just a policy change \u2014 it was a message to LGBTQ+ young people that their needs didn\u2019t matter. But LA County will not turn its back on our LGBTQ+ young people. Not now, not ever. So we are going to work at every level \u2014 local, state, and federal \u2014 to get this lifeline restored and protected for good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board approved a pair of motions by Hahn and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath on Tuesday. The first directs the county Department of Mental Health \u2014 which oversees the county 988 call center \u2014 to develop a local \u201cPress 3\u2019\u2019 option pilot program.<\/p>\n
According to Hahn\u2019s office, in the year before the option was eliminated, more than 14% of the 5.1 million people who dialed 988 used the Press 3 option for LGBTQ+ services.<\/p>\n
The motion also expressed support for state legislation being introduced by Assemblyman Mark Gonz\u00e1lez seeking to re-establish the service statewide.<\/p>\n
A second motion approved by the board put the county\u2019s support behind proposed federal legislation that would codify the Press 3 option into law.<\/p>\n
\u201cEliminating the \u2018Press 3\u2019 option on the 988 Lifeline is a dangerous decision, with real consequences for LGBTQ+ youth, who rely on trained, affirming counselors in their darkest moments,\u2019\u2019 Horvath said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people in our community face disproportionate challenges; taking away this critical resource is unacceptable. We must restore this lifesaving support and make clear that every young person deserves to be heard, supported, and safe. With today\u2019s motion, Los Angeles County is joining federal and state leaders in demanding it be restored for every LGBTQ+ youth in need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonz\u00e1lez, who attended a news conference with Hahn and Horvath prior to Tuesday\u2019s board meeting, said \u201clives are on the line\u201d with the absence of the Press 3 option.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore this reckless cut, 1.5 million contacts were made to Press 3,\u201d he said in a statement after the vote. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t happen by accident \u2014 that happens because LGBTQ+ youth trust this lifeline and rely on it in their darkest moments. Thanks to the leadership of Supervisor Hahn and Supervisor Horvath, my bill will ensure that California will not abandon these young people. We will step up, we will protect them, and we will make sure that life-saving help is always just four digits away.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 After the federal government cut funding for the service, the county Board of Supervisors on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,2093,13,732,49759],"class_list":{"0":"post-89399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-la","9":"tag-la-headlines","10":"tag-la-news","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","13":"tag-los-angeles-news","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-social-issues","17":"tag-suicide-and-crisis-lifeline"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}