WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it has opened its third Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) call center in Topeka, Kansas on the campus of the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center.
“Our focus is, as it always has been, to provide 24/7 world-class suicide prevention and crisis intervention services,” said VA Acting Secretary Peter O’Rourke of VA’s Veterans Health Administration. “VA is improving its service with this newest call center for Veterans, service members and their families.”
VA has always prioritized the need to provide immediate care to Veterans in crisis, and the VCL is an essential part of this life-saving mission. The Topeka-based center was opened to support increased demand. VA has two other call centers located in Canandaigua, New York, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Since VA launched the VCL in 2007, the crisis line responders have:
- Answered over 3.5 million calls
- Initiated the dispatch of emergency services to callers in imminent crisis nearly 93,000 times
- Engaged over 397,000 requests for chat services
- Answered nearly 92,000 requests for text services
- Forwarded more than 582,000 referrals to local VA Suicide Prevention Coordinators (SPCs) on behalf of Veterans to ensure continuity of care with Veterans local VA providers.
Veterans who are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide – and those who know a Veteran in crisis – can call the Veterans Crisis Line for confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Call 800-273-8255 and press 1, chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat, or text to 838255.
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Reporters and media outlets with questions or comments should contact the Office of Media Relations at vapublicaffairs@va.gov
Veterans with questions about their health care and benefits (including GI Bill). Questions, updates and documents can be submitted online.
Veterans can also use our chatbot to get information about VA benefits and services. The chatbot won’t connect you with a person, but it can show you where to go on VA.gov to find answers to some common questions.
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