Hesperian Health Guides
Prepare for crises
Reading resources like this one, organizing or joining a training, and using role-plays with scenarios matching your setting, are all ways to gain experience and gain confidence you will know what to do. Also, anyone in a crisis situation will want a trusted person to be aware of what is happening. Plan ahead so your communication with a friend or co-worker will be efficient in a moment of crisis. If possible, coordinate with another person to address the situation together, or have one person intervene while the other goes for help.
Preparing for crises also means thinking ahead to know your limits. If you are not OK with the possibility of helping someone in crisis, or only in certain circumstances, know where to turn to for support and who can step in if there is an emergency.
Another way to be ready is to know what mental health and other related resources are available. Keep a reference sheet on hand that includes names and contact information for mental health professionals, womenâs centers, non-English language support, peer-support networks, suicide-prevention hotlines, and other resources. If you work with an organization, you may already have or want to create procedures to follow in case of mental health emergencies.
Find out if there are alternatives to the police. Many cities are creating non-violent, non-police emergency services to respond to mental health crises. Instead of police, trained mental health workers are sent when someone calls 911 needing this type of help. Some cities also create a different number specifically for mental health emergencies. Find out if your 911 line or other hotlines or peer support lines in your area notify the police and for what scenarios.
Suicide prevention hotlines. A national suicide prevention line was launched in the US in 2022. You can access it by calling or texting 988. It was also designed to avoid police involvement, though incidents including threats to others might lead to the police being notified. Community-based mental health organizations are monitoring the effectiveness of this new resource. Whether 988 is the best choice for help in your area probably depends on what services are available.
Peer support lines. Peer support lines and other types of âwarmlinesâ are a way to talk or text with a trained peer counselor or professional mental health worker, helping prevent a personâs problems from turning into a crisis. Warmline.org maintains a list of programs by state. Local clinics and programs may offer warmlines too, and often take calls from everyone, not just people in their region.
Hotlines or peer support lines are often established for specific situations, such as domestic violence or drug or alcohol addiction. There are also support lines for people with specific identities or experiences, so they donât have to start from zero explaining themselves. For example, Trans Lifeline is run by and for transgender people, and the Veterans Crisis Line is for those who served in the military. See a list of hotlines and warmlines mentioned in this book.