Linking at-risk callers to ongoing mental health care is a key goal of crisis hotline interventions that has not often been addressed in evaluations of hotlines' effectiveness. We conducted telephone interviews with 376 suicidal and 278 nonsuicidal crisis callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) to assess rates of mental…

In this study we evaluated the effectiveness of telephone crisis services/hotlines, examining proximal outcomes as measured by changes in callers' suicide state from the beginning to the end of their calls to eight centers in the U.S. and again within 3 weeks of their calls. Between March 2003 and July 2004, 1,085 suicide callers were assessed…

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes toward the use of telephone crisis services (hotlines) among 519 adolescents in 9th through 12th grade mandatory health courses in six high schools in New York State. Few adolescents (2.1%) used hotlines and negative attitudes were stronger toward hotlines than they were toward other formal…

Objective: To identify youths' attitudes about coping and help-seeking strategies for suicidal ideation/behavior and examine their demographic and clinical correlates. Method: A self-report survey was completed by high school students (N = 2,419) in six New York State schools from 1998 through 2001. The relationship between suicide attitudes and…

The impact of the September 11th terrorist attacks on adolescents' mental health is reported. Two successive cohorts of students in 6 New York state high schools, identified from health courses, completed an in-school self-report baseline assessment of hopelessness, impairment, and help-seeking behavior. One year later, these students completed a…

During the past decade there has been increased interest in help-seeking behavior among adolescents. This reflects the recognition that while many psychiatric problems increase markedly during adolescence, the majority of disturbed teenagers do not receive mental health services. Nearly half of all adolescents have reported using the Internet to…