Volunteer Crisis Counselors: Increasing Mental Health, Resilience and Connection throughout LA County

Mental health

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

We are in the midst of a growing mental health crisis - particularly impacting young people - and the current mental health infrastructure is not sufficient to address it. In US:
Suicide is 2nd leading cause of death for ages 10-34 Nearly 1 in 3 teen girls seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021
Over half of adults are lonely, putting them at risk for depression, anxiety and suicide
There are 350 individuals for every mental health provider
Almost 60% of Americans are seeking or want to seek mental health services for themselves or someone close to them
In CA: Only 24% of need for mental health professionals is being met
In 2023, 32% of adults reported symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorder
In 2019, 45% of youth ages 12 and 17 reported having recently struggled with mental health issues
In LA: Spanish was primary language for 13% of LACDMH clients There is a clear need for scalable, high-quality, bilingual, and low-cost solutions to address this critical problem.

Crisis Text Line (CTL) provides free, 24/7, high-quality, confidential, text-based mental health support and crisis intervention by mobilizing a community of trained volunteers to support people in their moments of need. Anyone in crisis can reach us at 741741 via text, web chat, or WhatsApp in English or Spanish. We use a triage algorithm to identify texters at high risk of imminent harm and move them to the front of the queue, like a mental health emergency room. Every texter is connected with a trained volunteer Crisis Counselor (Counselor) who is overseen in real-time by clinically trained staff Supervisors.
Counselors use empathy and active listening to empower texters to identify their own strengths and coping strategies in moments of crisis. To do this, all Counselors must complete our free 15-hour web-based, self-paced crisis counseling and intervention training, with additional training for bilingual Counselors.
Research shows that the benefits of being a Counselor extend beyond the texters they support - providing enduring, cascading benefits for the Counselors themselves, as well as for their communities.
Since launching in 2013, CTL has supported 10 million text conversations and trained more than 74,000 Counselors in the US. In 2023 we supported nearly 25,000 conversations with people based in LA County and trained 373 new Counselors in LA County.
This project will recruit, train and support LA County Counselors, with mental health impacts rippling countywide.

CTL envisions an empathetic LA County where no one feels alone and mental health support is readily available. By training and mobilizing a community of Counselors, this project supports not only the mental health of texters, but also that of the Counselors, their families, workplaces and communities. The most valued skills that Counselors developed through their training and experiences – active listening, empathetic communication, compassion, supporting others in need of mental health support, and de-escalation – are also those used most in everyday interactions with family and friends, or in workplaces and communities. 98% of Counselors said they used these skills to support others outside of volunteering at least once in the last six months, and 44% indicated they do this multiple times a month/week/day - reaching exponentially more people in need of mental health information, resources, or active support. Most are also advocating for mental health awareness in their communities.

CTL’s Research & Impact team contributes insights to the mental health field by producing both in-house and collaborative research. In addition to research analyzing de-identified datasets based on our 10 million conversations with texters, we recently conducted in-depth research based on surveys of active and recently trained CTL Counselors.
The research found clear evidence that volunteering at CTL has a significant impact on the lives of Counselors, as well as cascading impacts on their friends, families, colleagues and broader communities.
Counselors showed great appreciation for the knowledge, skills and techniques they developed through volunteering, and reported using these competencies to support those around them. For the majority of Counselors, volunteering with CTL increased their sense of resilience and connectedness, and also inspired many to work or study in the helping professions. CTL will continue to survey Counselors to evaluate the impacts of volunteering.