Local crisis center expects a jump in demand with a new call routing method

In the two years since a national suicide and crisis hotline launched, about 39,000 connections were made with people calling and texting 988 in the Rochester-Finger Lakes region.

Goodwill of the Finger Lakes oversees the crisis center that handles those calls in Monroe, Wayne, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Seneca, Schuyler and Steuben counties.

And they are ramping up staffing in anticipation of increased demand for service due to a recent change in the way calls are directed to the center.

Previously, calls were routed by area code. Starting this month, they are being sorted by the caller's geographic location.

"If, say, someone from Florida comes to St John Fisher College; instead of their area code that has a very clear Florida area code, that call will get routed to us instead of the Florida contact center," explained Deb Turner, director of crisis and referral services at Goodwill.

Turner said this will allow her staff to connect callers with support services in their local community. She wants to dispel any concerns people may have about their location being known and police being summoned.

"We can't ping a phone," she said. "That's something we don't do. We have no interest in doing that. We want people to feel comfortable that (the call) is confidential."

Fewer than 2% of calls are directed to 911 for emergency response, according to Turner.

"If anything, 911 centers transfer calls to us because it's not appropriate for them to send police out," she said.

Because of the shift to routing calls by location and increased awareness efforts by New York state's Office of Mental Health, Turner anticipates at least a 30% increase in demand for service this fall. To prepare for this, she is in the process of doubling the call center's staff to 40 to 50 counselors. With starting hourly pay at $19 and 401k benefits, she said they generally have no problem recruiting people. She stresses that her staffers are not clinicians, but empathetic people who often have experienced their own mental health problems or substance use or know a loved one who has.

Turner also wants to dispel a possible misconception.

Since 988 is called the national suicide and crisis hotline, she fears some people may mistakenly believe it is only for those contemplating suicide.

"Really, suicide prevention is reaching out before it gets to that point of having those thoughts," she said. "It could be someone is feeling depressed, they're not sure what to do. They're having relationship issues, family issues. Crisis is really anything that destabilizes our normal way of coping."