A federal watchdog found that a national hotline for veterans suffering a mental health crisis was struggling to keep its responders trained to handle the most belligerent and abusive callers, and that the hotline’s responders sometimes juggled two active text message conversations at once.
The Government Accountability Office found that the shortfalls in both areas could lead to safety issues for both callers seeking help and the responders who answer the calls for the Veterans Crisis Line, or VCL, which is operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“The VCL has not adequately assessed the risk of these procedures, and as a result, the extent to which they could put veterans at risk and result in responder burnout is unknown,” GAO said in its report released this month.
The GAO found that responders for the VCL, which received close to 4 million calls between 2021 and 2024, sometimes juggle two text message conversations at once with veterans in distress, a practice that the GAO found led to more frequent “abandonments.” Meanwhile, so-called “complex” cases — in which callers are abusive to counselors, making threats or sexual remarks during a call — have been handed off to untrained responders who find the cases “difficult and psychologically damaging,” the watchdog found.
A million calls each year
The Veteran Crisis Line was established in 2007 to provide 24-hour support to veterans in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. The crisis line began providing support via phone call and expanded to an online chat platform in 2009 and to text messages in 2012. The hotline is operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The veteran crisis line, VCL, had 3.8 million calls, texts and chats, between the 2021 and 2024 fiscal years. The majority of veterans called the crisis line, but the agency has seen “the most rapid rate of growth” over text message, according to the GAO.
As of March, there were 1,280 authorized crisis responder positions and VCL officials told GAO that its responders “had not been impacted” by recent cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, the GAO said it’s “unclear how ongoing and planned efforts to reduce VA staffing levels” could impact the crisis line long-term.
In recent months, the veteran crisis line gained attention on Capitol Hill amid the chaos of mass federal layoffs.
After growing calls from Democratic senators on greater transparency from the VA on crisis line staff cuts, Secretary Doug Collins wrote in an April letter to members of Congress that 24 crisis line employees had received probationary termination notices, but that they were reinstated and rehired into the same position. Collins then told Senators in May that the same number of staff who were let go were brought back to work.
Two chats at once
The GAO highlighted issues with responders handling two or more veterans over chat or text at once. Between fiscal years 2021 and 2024, crisis responders answered 98% of the more than 243,500 texts and the 391,000 chats. Concurrent interactions made up 8% of texts and 12% of chats over that time period.
The GAO found that concurrent communications were “more likely to be abandoned” and that it took VCL responders longer to send initial responses if they were engaged in more than one chat. Responders, the report found, had an average response time for single texts of less than 30 seconds, but for concurrent texts, the response time was close to one minute.
“On limited occasions, VCL responders may briefly manage a maximum of two chats or texts,” Peter Kasperowicz, a spokesperson for the VA told Task & Purpose in an email.
A former crisis line worker with more than a decade of experience told Task & Purpose the double chat or double texting issue is a major safety concern.
“If the general public were aware that when they chat or text with us, that the person that they’re chatting and the responder could be doing another chat or text at the same time, I don’t think they would be pleased by that,” he said. “I don’t think it would hold up to public scrutiny.”
The former VCL worker who answered phones for the crisis line said he was trained to work in “digital services” — answering texts or online chats — but that it was voluntary at the time. It became a mandatory training requirement in May 2024, according to the GAO report.
“At the end of [training], they said, ‘OK, you’re ready to work in digital services,’ and at that point I said, ‘no, thank you,’” he said. “I knew at the time that it was stressful and unsafe, in my opinion, to be trying to do two chats or two texts at the same time, trying to talk to two people who were potentially suicidal, trying to assess them.”
The GAO report cited a standard operating procedure for digital service employees from August 2023 that allows double texts or chats, which is “in line with the procedures in place at other crisis lines.” The former VCL worker said that employees raised concerns over the practice before it became an official policy.
“There’s a difference between an industry standard and a best practice,” the worker said. “It’s certainly not a best practice to be trying to assess two people at the same time for suicide or whatever their crisis is.”
Responders who spoke to or were surveyed by the GAO indicated that dealing with two texts or chats could be a distraction and add to worker burnout. The former VCL worker told Task & Purpose that it would be easy to mix up details from the conversations, like calling someone by the wrong name or misremembering if they had been asked about access to a weapon.
“People are human beings and get information mixed up,” he said.
Though uncommon, responders sometimes handled three or more conversations at once. The GAO said its analysis of VA data found roughly 2,000 cases of responders handling more than two chats or text message threads at once, a violation of VCL procedures.
VA officials told the GAO that responders handling more than two chats “poses risks to customers and should not occur,” and that a new chat platform introduced in August 2024 limits responders to two chats at once. There are not equivalent restrictions for the VCL’s texting platform.
The VA told the GAO it would assess changes to its procedures for responders who do chat and text support by October 2025.
Kasperowicz noted that concurrency rates are now less than 10% on average. According to the GAO, concurrent chat rates dropped from around 20% to 10% and concurrent texts from roughly 24% to 2.5% between August 2021 to August 2024.
Complex callers
The VCL has a unit for “customers with complex needs,” which includes callers who make abusive, threatening or sexually explicit comments. Over the four-year fiscal year span, around 180,000 calls were directed to responders specializing in such complex calls. Responders who handle complex calls receive a 32-hour specialized training course on how to manage and de-escalate complicated situations.
The GAO found that VCL changed its procedure in March 2024 for complex-caller responders to redirect them to the main phone line when there are no trained responders available. The GAO found that since the new policy was implemented, mainline responders answered 6,000 of these calls.
The GAO said this change could “pose risks” to veterans because workers “may not be well-equipped to handle such interactions.” As of March, 84% of main phone line responders had not received complex caller training.
In a survey of responders who worked on the VCL main line, responders said that complex calls were rerouted to them when staff levels were low. One worker said in the survey that complex callers were “the most difficult and psychologically damaging to responder mental health.”
“During peak call hours, there is little to no opportunities for self-care or appropriate decompression,” another main line worker said in the survey. “These frequent interactions can be draining and take a toll on mental fortitude when communicating with following callers.”
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, the Lifeline network is available 24/7 across the United States. Reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988 and you’ll be connected to trained counselors.
The latest on Task & Purpose
- The Air Force fitness test may soon include 2-mile runs twice a year
- ‘War Thunder’ continues to live up to its reputation for OPSEC violations
- Guardsmen sent to LA are 130 miles east of the city doing drug busts
- Lightning Carriers: The Marines’ secret weapon in the Pacific
- Pentagon releases details of ‘Midnight Hammer’ strikes against Iran
