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Minnesota mental health crisis counseling hotline closing Friday

Star Tribune - 7/10/2017

July 10--A widely used hot line for Minnesotans suffering from mental health crises will shut down this Friday after nearly 50 years of operation because of financial difficulties, ending a service that helped about 20,000 people a year.

Canvas Health, the Oakdale-based nonprofit which operates the Crisis Connection hot line, announced today it is closing the service because of financial losses totaling more than $1 million over the past several years, as well as a lack of state funding.

The phone line connects callers with community resources and provides immediate counseling to people who are considering suicide and others struggling with mental health problems.

"We are concerned about how this change will affect Minnesotans in crisis," Canvas Health Chief Executive Matt Eastwood said in a statement. "We regret that making these changes is the only option we have to maintain Canvas Health's other ... services, including providing mental health, substance use, mobile crisis, and emergency social services to those who have the most complex needs in our community."

Minnesotans in crisis can still call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), which will continue to operate. In addition, each county in Minnesota still has its own mental health crisis response lines.

The closing of the Crisis Connection hot line comes as state health officials have struggled to curb a statewide increase in suicides, which in 2015 reached the highest level since the state began tracking them in the early 1900s. Minnesota recorded 726 suicides for 2015, up from 686 in the prior year. The increase was largely driven by a sharp rise in suicides among men, particularly white men ages 25 to 34, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

This spring, executives with Canvas Health, as well as people who benefited from the nonprofit's crisis counseling, testified at the state Legislature and unsuccessfully sought state funding to cover the service's annual losses. The Crisis Connection hot line, which was founded in 1969 and was privately funded, had annual deficits of about $100,000 to $300,000 a year, and lacked the money to continue to pay crisis counselors at its call center in Richfield, officials said.

The funding gap means the closing of Crisis Connection's main number, which receives about 20,000 calls a year. Starting Friday, callers who dial the number will be advised to go to their local emergency room or call 911.

Canvas Health said it is encouraging those who distribute the Crisis Connection number to remove it from all printed materials, websites, and other communications.

Twitter: @chrisserres

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