After celebrity suicides, calls to Colorado crisis hotline spiked

Following the deaths by suicide last week of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, calls to a Colorado suicide-prevention hotline soared.

Colorado Crisis Services experienced a 60 percent increase in call volume over normal levels between Friday night and noon Sunday, said Nourie Boraie, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Human Services. Most of those additional calls came through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which routes all calls from a Colorado area code to the statewide line.

To Andrew Romanoff, the president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado, the outpouring of need shows the importance of prevention services along with the necessity of making sure everyone knows about resources available to help during a mental health crisis.

“That’s one of the reasons we are forced to respond to these crises because we didn’t do enough to prevent them,” he said.

Romanoff listed off some of the ways people can connect with help when they or a loved one are in danger:

• Colorado Crisis Services’s 24-hour help line: 1-844-493-8255
• The center’s text line, reachable by texting “TALK” to 38255
• Walk-in centers around the state
• Self-assessment screenings available on Mental Health Colorado’s website.

Read the full story from The Denver Post.