A U.S. Air Force vet who called the Veterans Suicide Hotline for help on Saturday was repeatedly put on hold for periods lasting up to to 10 minutes, according to a report.
“I had to sit there patiently, in emotional distress, in tears, wanting to give up, desperately needing someone to talk to,”
veteran Ted Koran told WFTS-TV's investigative team.
The Veterans Crisis Line was established in 2007, and averaged 60 calls a day in the beginning, the station reported. Today, the hotline gets about a thousand calls a day.
Koran was experiencing an emotional breakdown, missing his wife who died of cancer six months ago. He called the James Haley VA Center in Tampa, and a recording directed him to the hotline. He was placed on hold for 10 minutes, hung up, and redialed twice.
“They had me on the [verge] of saying to hell with it,” he told WFTS-TV.
Koran said that thinking of the 60 animals he and his wife rescued through their nonprofit The Critter Place saved his life.
He posted about his ordeal on the nonprofit’s Facebook page.
Data released in January 2014 estimated that
22 veterans a day commit suicide, Stars and Stripes reported.
The national Veterans Crisis Line was under scrutiny earlier this year, when a
Scripps news report found that the service was understaffed, and the Coalition of Veterans Organizations described it as “seriously deficient.”
The Scripps report detailed numerous complaints, including a veteran who waited on hold for 36 minutes.
“The struggle is constantly to keep up our quality, because every single one is life or death,” Julianne Mullane, acting program manager for the crisis line, said, according to the report.
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