Duke Foundation Awards Grant to Suicide Call Centers

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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Duke Energy Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to the Mental Health America–Wabash Valley Region in Lafayette to expand staffing at two call centers currently serving 87 of Indiana’s 92 counties. A Better Way in Muncie, which operates one of the call centers, will receive half of the funding.
The national “988” suicide prevention hotline will go into service in 2022.
“COVID-19 shed a light on the mental health pandemic that already existed,” said Brandi Christiansen, president of Mental Health America–Wabash Valley Region. “The pandemic created financial hardships, increased isolation and loneliness, anxiety and uncertainty. Our suicide hotlines are an important tool to get citizens the help they desperately need.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in Indiana, and the second-leading cause of death among Hoosiers aged 15 to 34.