Since the start of the pandemic, demand for services like Teen Lifeline’s hotline has increased. In 2022, peer counselors responded to more than 43,000 calls and texts from other Arizona teens struggling with suicidal thoughts.
Peer volunteers go through three different phases of training to answer calls, and a supervisor is on hand at all times.
Based in Arizona, Lifeline is rolling out a new program for those under 18. After a participant is released from the hospital following a suicide attempt, peer volunteers will reach out by phone and handwritten notes for the following year.
But how much does it mean for volunteers to be peers of the young people they support?
Dani is a rising junior at Arizona State University, where she studies social work. She’s been volunteering with Teen Lifeline, which only releases first names of its teen volunteers, for more than two years.
“In Teen Lifeline we’re peer counselors and we’re [on] that side,” Dani said. “Outside, we are real world teenagers who go through the same stuff.”
She discovered Lifeline when she was finishing up high school.
“In September of my senior year, I lost a friend to suicide,” Dani said. “She had just graduated. It was 2020, and no one else in our school really knew that she was struggling.”
Dani received the news while out of state. Then she saw the phone number for Lifeline on the back of her school ID and applied on the drive home.
“I was like, ‘OK, this could be for me,’” she said.
Dani spends a lot of time volunteering, and she hopes to help teach other young people how to support each other.
“[It’s about] just being able to, if anything else happens like that again, being able to not only pick up on the warning signs but knowing how to help and what to do from there,” Dani said.
In the hotline room, there’s a board full of quotes from callers.
Dani recalled one she received that read: “You saved a life tonight,” with a smiley face.
“It’s like, ‘We did that,’” Dani said. “They feel so much better after just getting it out.”
Adults, she said, sometimes jump too quickly to offer advice or reassure teens because they’ve been through it all before. But according to Dani, callers often just need a listening ear. And the quotes show how much it matters to have someone on the other line who "gets it."
The existing Caring Contacts program for adults saw a total reduction in deaths by suicide, and 75% reduction in hospitalizations. Through the new program, Teen Lifeline expects to help more than 600 Maricopa County participants over the next year.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, there is help. Contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 (en Español, llame al 988, prensa 2; for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, dial 711 then 988). You may also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.