Crisis hotline counselors are themselves facing a troubling issue with sexually explicit and otherwise harassing phone calls.
NPR spoke with 10 former and current counselors from five different call centers who said obscene calls are an ongoing problem they’ve experienced.
Illinois woman Lily Lantz, who worked at with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, told NPR she got calls from people masturbating during nearly every shift.
“They would sometimes say things like, ‘Your voice sounds so good right now, you’re making me feel so good right now,’” Lantz said.
Whether or not those callers are actually experiencing a mental health crisis, counselors are required to ask if they’re at risk of harming themselves, keeping the conversation going even amid repeated abuse.
Counselors who determine harassing callers aren’t at risk can eventually end the call in some places. But because those callers might someday face an actual crisis, counselors are not allowed to ever block a phone number linked to an abusive call — even if it happens again from the same number.
A handful of 988 workers told NPR that “abusive contacts,” as such calls are known in the industry, made them want to quit their jobs.
“I did not sign up to be a sex worker,” a counselor going by “Daisy” told the outlet. She eventually quit over the stress of the verbal abuse.
The 988 line doesn’t track abusive contacts on a national level, though one suicide prevention line in Portland, Ore., reported at least 1% of its 5,000 monthly calls are offensive in nature.
Counselors at that center started transferring nasty calls to a trained supervisor in 2020. In Illinois, according to NPR, such callers can be directed to a pre-recorded message.
“Abusive contacts” can also include calls that are racist, sexist and personally insulting.
One of the ways PATH Crisis Center CEO Adam Carter thinks the problem can be addressed in Illinois is by giving counselors first responder status that shields them from civil liability. PATH Inc. has a government contract to handle 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline calls in Illinois.
Rethinking how criminal laws can help 988 operators is also a possible solution. Harassing callers who torment 911 workers can be prosecuted. That isn’t the case with 988.