HHS to retire 988 crisis lifeline for LGBTQ youth

The U S Department of Vitality and Human Services is planning to retire the national problem lifeline for LGBTQ youth on Oct according to a preliminary budget document obtained by the Washington Post Introduced during the Biden-Harris administration in the hotline connects callers with counselors who are trained to work with this population who are four times likelier to attempt suicide than their cisgender or heterosexual counterparts Suicide prevention is about peril not identity reported Jaymes Black CEO of the Trevor Project which provides exigency predicament backing for LGBTQ youth and has contracted with HHS to take calls routed through https b a e cc c ff fd c da d d safeframe googlesyndication com safeframe - - html container html Ending the Suicide and Problem Lifeline s LGBTQ youth specialized services will not just strip away access from millions of LGBTQ kids and teens it will put their lives at jeopardy they disclosed in a report These programs were implemented to address a proven unprecedented and ongoing mental healthcare emergency among our nation s young people with strong bipartisan endorsement in Congress and signed into law by President Trump himself I want to be clear to all LGBTQ young people This news while upsetting is not final Black declared And regardless of federal funding shifts the Trevor Project remains available for anyone who necessities us just as we constantly have The institution for LGBTQ youth has received million calls texts or chats since its debut with an average of contacts per day in February I worry deeply that we will see more LGBTQ young people reach a dilemma state and not have anyone there to help them through that disclosed Janson Wu director of advocacy and leadership affairs at the Trevor Project I worry that LGBTQ young people will reach out to and not receive a compassionate and welcoming voice on the other end and that will only deepen their dilemma Under Trump s HHS secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr the agency s departments and divisions have experienced drastic cuts with a planned reduction in force of full-time employees The Substance Abuse and Mental Soundness Services Administration has been sunset and mental healthcare services consolidated into the newly formed Administration for a Healthy America The budget document reveals per Mother Jones further sweeping cuts to HHS including a percent budget cut to the National Institutes of Fitness elimination of funding for Head Start the early childhood learning undertaking for low-income families and a percent funding cut to the Centers for Ailment Control including all the agency s chronic sickness programs The post HHS to retire dilemma lifeline for LGBTQ youth appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta