Nationwide Behavioral Health Crisis Line Sees Post-Pandemic Rise in Calls

PHOENIX, Ariz.—For those feeling trapped and alone in the middle of a behavioral health crisis, suicide can seem like a solution.
There are times when call takers at Solari Crisis and Human Services in Tempe, Arizona, will have people on the phone literally on the precipice.
“We do get callers with guns to their heads,” said Eric Lee, Solari’s director of contact center operations and clinical services.
Suicide calls and threats of self-harm go with the territory, Lee said, and account for roughly 20 percent of Solari’s growing monthly caller volume.
He said it takes a skilled crisis worker to talk a desperate individual away from the abyss; though not every case will have a happy ending….