Help for Vets
Vets or their families and friends can text 838255 to seek help. Resourses also available at http://veteranscrisisline.net/

by Patti Singer Staff writer

Veterans in crisis have another way to reach for help.

The national Veterans Crisis Line, operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and staffed at the Canandaigua VA facility, has begun communicating via text message.
“A lot of people prefer to text than to phone,” said Victoria Bridges, program management officer of the Veterans Crisis Line and National Call Center for Homeless Veterans. “We need to make a way for them to reach crisis services in the modality they would (use to) call a friend.”
The service started quietly on Nov. 1 so that the staff would have a chance to make sure the technology would work.

About the only place to find the number was on the crisis line home page.
Bridges said that about four to six new people a day were seeing it, and the first month brought 117 texts.

The officially launch was Thursday and the text number soon should be on the VA home page at www.va.gov.
It’s the third way for veterans or their family and friends to contact the 24-hour crisis line, which is part of the VA’s suicide prevention program.
The crisis line started in late July 2007 with phone service.

Through October, it has fielded more than one-half million calls.

Online chats were added on July 4, 2009, and so far there have been more than 31,000.
For now, Bridges said there won’t be staffers added to respond to the texts. If volume increases significantly, a request would be made for more help.
Bridges said that chatting and now texting provide anonymity that a phone call lacks. “That may be valuable.”

Whether by phone, chat or text, the messages from veterans or loved ones are similar, Bridges said.
“Some people will say, ‘I have a friend in distress. What can I do.’

“Some people will call and say, ‘I feel funny about calling you’ and talk about disturbing thoughts.”
A staffer who receives a text from someone in imminent danger can ask if the person would be comfortable receiving a phone call so that emergency services can be contacted.
PSINGER http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20111205/NEWS01/112050329/1168/RSS