Crisis lines are a valuable community resource that anonymously and freely serve those in acute crisis. As a result of anonymity, it has been difficult to fully characterise crisis line services. However, appraising and improving crisis line services for the communities they serve is essential, even with the additional difficulty anonymity poses. This study seeks to increase our understanding of current crisis services and utilisation via a characterisation of various aspects of a United States crisis line service centre over 12‐months including features of calls (e.g. call length), callers (e.g. victimisation history), and information provided to the caller (e.g. referrals). We examine five crisis lines totalling 5,001 calls from October 2018 to September 2019. Descriptive information is provided on call volume, patterns across time, caller characteristics, victimisation types, and referrals. Although we were unable to assess prospective outcomes due to anonymity, 99.5% of callers that were asked (61.35% of all calls; n = 3,068) reported the call as helpful. This provides an important overview of crisis line services and suggests they are a valuable community health resource serving a range of callers. Given the findings of the present study, we conclude with a discussion of recommendations and implications for community crisis line centres and future research.

中文翻译：

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危机热线服务：对呼叫者、呼叫内容和转介的 12 个月的描述性分析

危机热线是一种宝贵的社区资源，可以匿名和自由地为处于严重危机中的人服务。由于匿名，很难完全描述危机热线服务的特征。然而，为他们所服务的社区评估和改进危机热线服务是必不可少的，即使匿名带来了额外的困难。本研究旨在通过描述美国危机热线服务中心在 12 个月内的各个方面的特征，包括呼叫特征（例如呼叫长度）、呼叫者（例如受害历史）和信息，来增加我们对当前危机服务和利用的理解提供给呼叫者（例如推荐）。我们检查了从 2018 年 10 月到 2019 年 9 月共 5,001 个电话的五个危机热线。提供了有关电话量、跨时间模式的描述性信息，来电者特征、受害类型和转介。尽管由于匿名我们无法评估预期结果，但 99.5% 的来电者被询问（占所有来电的 61.35%；n  = 3,068) 报告该电话很有帮助。这提供了危机热线服务的重要概述，并表明它们是为一系列呼叫者提供服务的宝贵社区卫生资源。鉴于本研究的结果，我们最后讨论了对社区危机热线中心和未来研究的建议和影响。