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As a suicide prevention initiative, this sign on the Golden Gate Bridge promotes a special telephone that connects to a crisis hotline.

A crisis hotline is a phone number people can call to get immediate over-the-phone emergency counseling, usually by trained volunteers. Such hotlines have existed in most major cities of the United States at least since the mid-1970s. Initially set up to help those contemplating suicide, many have expanded their mandate to deal more generally with emotional crises. They have also spawned similar hotlines to help counsel people in other circumstances, including rape victims, runaway children, homosexuals facing difficulties, and suchlike.

Such services began in 1953, when Chad Varah, an English vicar, founded The Samaritans service, which soon established branches throughout the United Kingdom.

In the United States, San Francisco Suicide Prevention^[1] started a hotline "Call Bruce" in 1962. A similar service, Lifeline, was established in Australia in 1963. A totally volunteer-run crisis hotline, Lifelink Samaritans, was established in Tasmania in 1968 by concerned citizens of Launceston. This service provides emotional support 24 hours a day to callers from all over the state of Tasmania and does not have any religious affiliations. The organisation is a member of Befrienders Worldwide and has a "twinning" relationship with Northampton Samaritans in the UK. Lifelink Samaritans is the oldest telephone befriending service in Tasmania and the fourth oldest in Australia.

One criticism of suicide hotlines is that those who are determined to kill themselves are unlikely to call one. Also, those with social anxiety may not have the emotional resources to do so. There is no evidence that the presence of suicide hotlines reduces the incidence of suicide.^[2]

Hotline

• Befrienders International (now maintained by Lifelink Samaritans UK)
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a hotline funded by the United States federal government
• Lifeline International
• International Federation of Telephone Emergency Services, a directory of European hotlines
• Suicidehotlines.com, a directory of American hotlines
• Young America Hotline, an American teenager peer counseling hotline
• The Trevor Project, an American hotline aimed principally at LGBT teenagers.
• Helpline 2-1-1 Serves the 8 counties of the Big Bend, Florida. Dial 2-1-1 or 850-617-6333.

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