Emergency numbers and suicide helplines are two institutional settings with different support for persons in crisis. Emergency calls have a single focus of getting pertinent information to send police, fire, or ambulance. Suicide helplines offer callers a chance to talk through their problems by providing emotional support. However, on occasion, call-takers in emergency lines might need to provide emotional support to get the caller to give their location, and call-takers in suicide helplines will sense that callers need emergency service. Using conversation analysis to compare cases of U.S. 9-1-1 emergency calls and Swedish suicide helpline calls, we identify practices for assisting callers whose interactional home is in the other arena. Our analysis presents cases of missed opportunities, when call-takers respond to callers’ boundary pushing by sticking to institutional routines. Then we show practices by which participants build new institutional contexts in each helpline while still pursuing institutional goals, such as when emergency call-takers display other-attentiveness and suicide helpline call-takers elicit callers’ location. By explicating routine and boundary pushing practices in these different settings’ crisis management moments, we contribute methodologically to the study of institutional talk, in particular, how a comparative analysis reveals aspects of institutional boundaries in suicide preventive work.

紧急电话号码和自杀求助热线是两种机构设置，为处于危机中的人提供不同的支持。紧急呼叫的一个重点是获取相关信息以发送警察、消防或救护车。自杀求助热线为来电者提供了一个机会，通过提供情感支持来解决他们的问题。然而，有时，紧急热线的接听者可能需要提供情感支持以让呼叫者提供他们的位置，而自杀求助热线的接听者会感觉到呼叫者需要紧急服务。使用对话分析来比较美国 9-1-1 紧急呼叫和瑞典自杀求助热线电话的案例，我们确定了协助互动家庭在另一个领域的呼叫者的做法。我们的分析提出了错失机会的案例，当电话接听者通过坚持制度惯例来回应来电者的边界推动时。然后，我们展示了参与者在每个帮助热线中建立新的机构环境同时仍然追求机构目标的实践，例如当紧急呼叫者表现出其他注意力和自杀求助热线呼叫者获取呼叫者的位置时。通过解释这些不同环境的危机管理时刻的常规和边界推动实践，我们在方法论上为制度谈话的研究做出了贡献，特别是比较分析如何揭示自杀预防工作中制度边界的各个方面。例如，当紧急呼叫者表现出其他注意力时，自杀求助热线的呼叫者会引出呼叫者的位置。通过解释这些不同环境的危机管理时刻的常规和边界推动实践，我们在方法论上为制度谈话的研究做出了贡献，特别是比较分析如何揭示自杀预防工作中制度边界的各个方面。例如，当紧急呼叫者表现出其他注意力时，自杀求助热线的呼叫者会引出呼叫者的位置。通过解释这些不同环境的危机管理时刻的常规和边界推动实践，我们在方法论上为制度谈话的研究做出了贡献，特别是比较分析如何揭示自杀预防工作中制度边界的各个方面。