Panel scrutinizes suicide hotline

Tuesday, April 23, 2002 | 9:12 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A state mental health panel has expressed concerns about the operation of a volunteer suicide hotline in Las Vegas.

Dr. Elizabeth Richitt, a member of the state Commission on Mental Health and Developmental Services, said Friday she was distressed by a November story in the Las Vegas Sun that said of 20 calls made by reporters to the Southern Nevada Suicide Hotline, only 11 went through.

One call went unanswered, two received fax tones and six went to an answering service, the Sun reported.

John Brailsford, a commission member, questioned the wisdom of having the calls taken by a telephone answering service first, then transferred. He suggested there should be a person with some training in the field taking the calls.

Dorothy Bryant, who heads the Southern Nevada Suicide Hotline, said there have been no complaints from callers that an answering service fields the calls, which are then transferred in one or two minutes to a trained professional who can help the individual.

If no volunteers are available, the calls are transferred to the statewide Crisis Care Center operated out of Reno.

She added that a wrong number, one for a fax line, was listed in the phone book.

Bryant said the Las Vegas hotline has been operating for 32 years, relying entirely on donations. It has no paid staff and has 34 active volunteers.

"We've learned how to scrounge," she told the commission.

Its budget last year was $25,000, and it received $10,000 from Clark County and $5,000 from the city of Las Vegas.

Asked about getting money from foundations, Bryant and others said that would require paid employees, which the group doesn't have.

"It sounds like an underfunded labor of love," said Ritchett, who wondered about a possible plan to gain more support.

Bryant said the hotline gets calls from across the nation and even from foreign countries.

She suggested it could use $200,000 a year to increase the training of volunteers and to hire a worker to seek grants.

The commission suggested Bryant work with a legislative study committee on suicide headed by Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas.

Stacy Heiser of the Crisis Call Center in Reno said her center operates with volunteers and a paid staff. She said her group gets about 300 calls a month from Clark County. About 10 to 15 percent are suicide-related, she said, and the rest deal with other serious problems.

The commission chose David Ward of Reno to become chairman of the commission to succeed Frances Brown of Las Vegas, whose term is expiring. Gov. Kenny Guinn must approve Ward's designation as chairman.