These crisis counselors, whose job it is to reassure, now need some reassurance of their own — because the coronavirus knows no boundaries.
The woman on the phone had come back from the market with a dry cough; she was worried about having COVID-19, worried that she could infect her husband and her children. For a brief moment, she’d forgotten her fears and embraced her kids.April Rosas comforted the woman the only way she could — over the phone from a small gray cubicle on the third floor of the Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center in Century City.Her children “were in need of love,” the caller said.
For decades, Didi Hirsch crisis counselors have provided comfort to hundreds of thousands of people calling the Disaster Distress Helpline and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. They take about 130,000 calls and chats per year and have seen callersAmid the coronavirus outbreak, crisis counselors are dealing with some of the same fears as callers.
“I’m worried if my utilities will continue if I can’t pay,” one caller said. “Will I still get power and water?” At the same time, counselors have been dealing with the risk of the coronavirus spreading in the center. Didi Hirsch has been providing telehealth and telepsychiatry services but is still working on moving the entire call system off-site to enable counselors to work remotely.
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