PERSPECTIVE : Crisis Hot Lines Face Ongoing Fiscal Problem

Distraught over a divorce and contemplating suicide, DeLoura Harrison dialed two crisis hot lines in search of help. She got no answer at either number.

An hour later, Harrison was shot to death by a sheriff’s deputy inside her room at a Mission Viejo hotel after she pointed a semiautomatic handgun at a second officer.

Harrison’s death in June, 1991, focused attention on the serious staffing shortages of Orange County’s crisis-intervention lines, which lacked the money and volunteers to answer every call. Instead of soothing voices, many callers heard apologetic recordings or busy signals.

Four years later, mental health experts and hot-line volunteers say, the situation has not improved, and the county’s bankruptcy is exacerbating the problem.

“My impression is that little has changed,” said Timothy P. Mullins, the county’s mental health director. “When someone calls for help, putting them on hold is frustrating. . . . I don’t think it’s a good thing to do when someone is calling at a time of desperation.”

Phone counselors said they agonize over not being able to serve all callers but say that staffing and money shortages leave no alternative.

“You want to reach them all. The reality is that you can’t,” said Pat Pina, the unpaid executive director at the Hotline Help Center in Anaheim. “You give as much as you can. Then you have to say that God is in control and will supply that need.”

With some hot lines, callers who do not reach a counselor hear a recording that gives the numbers of several other crisis centers.

“The way it is now, we have to prioritize,” Pina said. “If someone calls with a gun in his mouth, you have to let the other calls ring and help that person.”

There is no way to tally how many calls go unanswered at the half-dozen hot lines listed in the phone book. The county has little regulatory power over nonprofit phone services and does not keep records of their activities.

Two of the largest services, Hotline Help Center and New Hope, try to have at least two or three volunteer counselors staffing the phones at all times. Still, officials admit that they regularly miss calls.

“We hope to get to everyone sooner or later,” said Bob Morrison, who runs the Crystal Cathedral’s New Hope service in Garden Grove. “It’s frustrating. No matter how many phones you have, you can’t answer them all.”

New Hope has operated since the late 1960s and receives calls from across the nation because its number is displayed during the Rev. Robert Schuller’s weekly “Hour of Power” television program.

New Hope’s 240 volunteers handle more than 40,000 calls a year, or about 120 a day. Most callers “are just feeling low” and want to discuss their troubles with a supportive counselor, Morrison said.

Officials estimate that only one call in 1,000 involves a truly despondent or suicidal person like Harrison, 43, whose case stirred demands for more adequate staffing of crisis lines.

Harrison, a Florida resident in Orange County to finalize a divorce, tried two hot-line numbers provided to her by a 911 operator but got no response. She then dialed back the 911 operator, who talked with Harrison for 20 minutes before dispatching two deputies to her hotel room. Minutes later, one of the deputies mortally wounded her when she pointed a .25 caliber handgun at them as they entered the room with a pass key.

Mental health experts question whether the outcome would have been different had Harrison reached a phone counselor. They say that most counselors are trained to contact authorities if they believe extremely distraught callers might harm themselves.

Still, counselors are quick to acknowledge that the hot lines should be able to handle more calls. But that is not likely to happen without more money to recruit volunteers and set up fund-raising operations.

“I would love to buy huge ads in newspapers, but that’s costly,” said Pina, head of the 27-year-old Hotline Help Center, which has an annual budget of less than $50,000. Instead, Pina seeks contributions by speaking at service clubs, church groups and senior-citizens organizations.

The county’s financial crunch has made the funding problem worse. Since the county’s bankruptcy in December, more than $7 million has been slashed from the mental health budget. “When you take so much out of the system, our accessibility as well as the speed and depth of our response is hurt,” Mullins said.

The county’s psychiatric emergency room in Santa Ana is also feeling the pinch.

As one of the few county facilities open past 5 p.m., the emergency room is fielding an increasing number of calls from people seeking a variety of county services, leaving staffers with less time for those with acute mental-health needs.

Ideally, county officials say, they would offer training and technical support to counselors and help coordinate the hot lines. But Mullins said he doubts that will happen. “I don’t see the financial situation changing,” he said. “I’m cutting muscle and bone at this point.”

As discouraging as the situation is, volunteer counselors said they try to stay focused on the people they are able to help.

“I used to take it really personally when I couldn’t talk to someone because I was on the other line with someone else,” said Pina, who has volunteered at the Hotline Help Center for 18 years. “You try to save the world, but the world can’t be saved. One person can only do so much.”