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NATIONAL HOTLINE OFFERS GRAD
STUDENTS LIFE-SAVING SUPPORT

Recent media attention to the high-pressure environment of advanced academia and the increase in graduate student suicides has generated the introduction of a national hotline specifically oriented to graduate students in crisis. Graduate students facing extreme stress or despair may call 1-877-GRAD-HLP, toll-free, 24 hours a day every day, to speak anonymously with a crisis counselor trained in graduate issues. In its first week of operation, the crisis line received calls from several distressed students.

The intent of the 1-877-GRAD-HLP hotline is to manage the immediate crisis only and work in partnership with existing support resources at the caller's local campus. Counselors assess the caller's lethality risk, counsel, and make referrals to local support resources for follow-up. Originators of the hotline assert that the establishment of a national graduate crisis line in no way implies a deficiency in existing mental health services for students, but instead offers a supplemental alternative for students. The more options students have to obtain help, says Nick Repak, executive director of Grad Resources, a national nonprofit organization serving graduate students, the more likely one of those options will meet a student's needs. "A national hotline a thousand miles away may be appealing for some grad students who initially might be reluctant to contact on-campus mental health services for fear of exposure," says Dr. Mary Francis Seeley, special consultant for the grad hotline and chief certification examiner for the American Association of Suicidology.

Sponsored by Grad Resources, the 1-877-GRAD-HLP crisis hotline will be staffed by 50 trained phone counselors who also operate the Boys Town National Hotline. All counselors have completed training to understand the unique issues faced by graduate students.

To read the Council of Graduate Schools' entire publication, see the Adobe Acrobat PDF file available online.

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