While counseling by phone remains far more prevalent, texting has become such a fundamental way to
communicate, particularly among people under 20, that crisis groups have begun to adopt it as an alternative way of providing emergency services and counseling.
Texting provides privacy that can be crucial if a person feels threatened by someone near them, counselors say. It also looks more natural if the teenager is in public.
...The idea for Crisis Text Line began two years ago when the main nonprofit organization run by Ms. [Nancy] Lublin, DoSomething.org, which encourages teenagers to get involved in causes like animal cruelty, received an unsolicited and chilling text.
“He won’t stop raping me. It is my dad. He told me not to tell anyone. Are U there?”
Although DoSomething regularly communicates with its members by text, it had no crisis capabilities. Legally, DoSomething was allowed to text back a hotline phone number, but no more. It never heard back.
After spending weeks sleepless with worry, Ms. Lublin decided that if teenagers were in a threatening situation and wanted to text with a counselor instead of talk, there should be a way. She started fund-raising and hired a team of programmers who toured hotline centers asking them how text might be used to address the deficiencies in the current system.
In Texting Era, Crisis Hotlines Put Help at Youths’ Fingertips
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