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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/teen-mental-health-peer-support-hotline-california/>
"On weekday evenings between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. PST, the small, softly lit Teen
Line office in Century City, CA, begins to buzz. A handful of high schoolers —
many still in their school sweatshirts — settle into cubicles, put on headsets
and begin answering calls, texts and emails from other teenagers who need
someone to talk to. For more than four decades, Teen Line has been
demonstrating the power of a simple but radical idea: That sometimes the best
person to talk to about teenage problems is another teenager.
Founded in 1980 as the Center for the Study of Young People in Groups, the
grassroots nonprofit evolved into a vital resource for young people struggling
with stress, loneliness, relationships and mental health challenges. Today, it
operates as part of Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, home to the nation’s
first and largest Suicide Prevention Center, which served more than 232,000
individuals in 2024. Teen Line still runs on the same core model: Trained teens
supporting peers through nonjudgmental listening.
“I think the biggest thing I say to almost every caller is that it’s okay not
to be okay,” says Sanaya, a soft-spoken volunteer who joined in fall 2024 and
prefers to only give her first name. “There’s such a culture, especially among
teenagers, to just say, ‘I’m fine.’ But by reassuring them that it’s really
okay to talk about what’s going on, people start to open up. Then we can have a
much deeper conversation.”
Teen Line’s mission feels more critical than ever. Approximately 40 percent of
U.S. high-school students report persistent sadness or hopelessness, and
suicide remains the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 24,
according to the CDC. Teen Line fills a widening gap in the nation’s fraying
youth mental health system — with no federal funding, only grants, donations
and the dedication of 100 teen volunteers who log more than 10,000 contacts a
year from youth around the world. “We even once got a call from a teen in
Zimbabwe who found us online,” says Cheryl Karp Eskin, the organization’s
senior director.
Meanwhile, major funding streams for school-based mental health support have
been cut. The U.S. Department of Education recently ended roughly $1 billion in
grants originally designated to help schools hire additional counselors and
psychologists under the 2022
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, passed after a
wave of school shootings. Simultaneously, the federal government has removed
the dedicated “Press 3” option for LGBTQ+ youth on the national 988 Suicide &
Crisis Lifeline.
At a time when youth mental health needs are escalating, federal support for
key programs is shrinking. That makes Teen Line’s peer-to-peer model all the
more essential."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
