wait.what
no really, what?
- Aug 14, 2020
- 987
Trans Lifeline is one of the few mental health hotlines that promises never to practice non-consensual "active rescue," i.e., they swear they won't send armed cops to your house to shoot your dog, terrify your kids, and then slam you to the pavement when you fail to comply with confusing orders like "Don't move! Get down on the ground!" (Nothing like a night spent cuffed to a chair in a "fishbowl" cell for restoring your will to live.)
The problem with Trans Lifeline has always been that they didn't have enough volunteers to answer the phones during the graveyard shift, which is the worst time for many people.
Most smaller hotlines have calls "rolled over" to other organizations during the hours they can't cover their phones. The problem being that even if Organization A promises not to send the cops after you, they can't make that promise on the behalf of Organization B, which answers calls made to A from 9 pm to 9 am (or whatever it is). So Trans Lifeline has to be on its own if they want callers to avoid unnecessary police contacts, and there used to be big gaps in their phone coverage. Also, even if you were fortunate enough to catch a volunteer, they weren't all very useful. I once spent about 20 minutes on the phone with a kid(?) whose response to everything pretty much amounted to "Uh-huh."
Anyhow—despite some very real barriers, Trans Lifeline appears to be fully staffed now. The person I spoke to the other week was quite helpful in talking me down from a panic attack, actually.
From their site:
The problem with Trans Lifeline has always been that they didn't have enough volunteers to answer the phones during the graveyard shift, which is the worst time for many people.
Most smaller hotlines have calls "rolled over" to other organizations during the hours they can't cover their phones. The problem being that even if Organization A promises not to send the cops after you, they can't make that promise on the behalf of Organization B, which answers calls made to A from 9 pm to 9 am (or whatever it is). So Trans Lifeline has to be on its own if they want callers to avoid unnecessary police contacts, and there used to be big gaps in their phone coverage. Also, even if you were fortunate enough to catch a volunteer, they weren't all very useful. I once spent about 20 minutes on the phone with a kid(?) whose response to everything pretty much amounted to "Uh-huh."
Anyhow—despite some very real barriers, Trans Lifeline appears to be fully staffed now. The person I spoke to the other week was quite helpful in talking me down from a panic attack, actually.
From their site:
