Boston suicide hotline received significant increase in calls, texts following Donald Trump’s election
Tuesday night was one that had many across the nation on edge.
And, according to Steve Mongeau, the executive director of Samaritans of Boston, it was reflected by calls to the local suicide prevention hotline.
Mongeau said the volume of calls the 24-hour hotline received the night of the election was up 40 percent compared to a normal day. The number of texts, he said, doubled.
“There were very clear, specific references to the outcome of the election,” Mongeau told Boston.com Thursday, referring to Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s stunning victory.
“It’s not uncommon during an ‘event,’ if you will, that people dealing with stress, anxiety, fear, see those feelings magnified,” he said, adding that the hotline saw a similar increase in the days following the Boston Marathon bombings.
Mongeau said the calls came from people anxious about a diversity of issues, including their health care coverage, housing, and immigration status. Two other groups stuck out as well, he said: The military and the LGBT communities.
The main anxiety that ran through all the contacts: “What’s going to happen?”
It was hardly a local phenomena.
Two national suicide prevention hotlines told the Washington Post in an article Thursday that they saw calls more than double in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“We didn’t see numbers like this in 2008 or 2012,” National Suicide Prevention Lifeline director John Draper said. “This was an extraordinary year by any stretch of the imagination.”
Steve Mendelsohn, deputy executive director of the Trevor Project, told the Post that the last time his suicide prevention hotline for LBGT youths saw a surge like Wednesday was after the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last June.
Mongeau says anyone feeling anxious or concerned should feel free to call or text Samaritans of Boston at 877-870-4673.
“The big thing, in general, is we spend a lot of time doing ‘nonjudgmental listening’ and validation of feelings. It’s OK that you’re feeling this way,” he said.
For those still feel stressed about the election, he suggested spending time taking their mind off things and doing something they enjoy.
Otherwise, Mongeau says, “We’re here.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com