24 Hour Crisis Hotline- 716-834-3131
Serving Buffalo and Erie County
Anyone of any age who is experiencing a personal, emotional or mental health crisis can call 24 hours a day. When you call Crisis Services you will always speak with a professional counselor or trained paraprofessional volunteer. Our hotline counselors are dedicated to providing the best services to every caller. Our hotline counselors are trained in telephone lethality assessment to assess the level of individual risk and to determine the appropriate level of services. We provide crisis counseling, suicide prevention, support, information and referral. We triage each call in order of emergency so please be patient and stay on the line, your call is very important to us. In addition we:
- Serve as the center of agency operations receiving over 100,000 calls annually
- Provide immediate response to all callers on a 24 hour a day basis
- Provide immediate access to all Crisis Services Programs including Outreach, Advocate and Homeless Services
- Provide a Kids Helpline dedicated to serving school aged children, adolescents and parents by providing immediate and confidential support 24 hours a day
When calling Crisis Services 24 hour hotline, you will receive an automated menu of options to choose from to direct your call efficiently to the right program service.
Below are the options available to direct your call to a specialized hotline counselors to assist you.
If you are unsure what service you need, press 1 to speak to a hotline counselor.
- Press 1 if you are suicidal or having a mental health crisis
- Press 2 to reach our Emergency Outreach and Trauma Response Program
- Press 3 if you are calling regarding domestic violence, family violence, rape, sexual assault or elder abuse
- To repeat the menu Press 8
24 Hour Specialty Lines
Addiction Open Access Hotline- 716-831-7007
The Addiction Open Access Hotline is available for people living in Erie, Niagara, Allegany, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties. Professionals are standing by to link people to substance abuse treatment services. Addiction Open Access delivers immediate engagement, assessment, and referral services for people suffering from a substance use disorder. We know every addiction is different. The Hotline is here to link you to the treatment you need, whether that is detox, inpatient, or outpatient. If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, we can help any time, any day.
This effort is enhancing the services of the existing Erie County’s 24 hour Addiction Hotline that is funded by Erie County and began operation in 2016 by Crisis Services. The Hotline will be the access point to the Open Access Services for the five counties listed above. The Crisis Services Addiction Hotline, which will now be answered as the Addiction Open Access Hotline, is 716-831-7007.
Kids helpline – 716-834-1144
The Kids helpline is a part of the Crisis Counseling Program. These services are 24/7 and offer immediate response and information on a variety of issues related to youth and their families.
Chautauqua County Hotline
Chautauqua County Mental Health has contracted with Crisis Services to manage that County’s 24 hour mental health hotline. Chautauqua County Residents can reach us at 1-800-724-0461. Services include immediate crisis intervention, supportive counseling, information and referrals and connect with services if immediate on site intervention is needed to address the mental health crisis.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: NSPL is a nationwide network of over 140 crisis centers. Calls originating from anywhere in the country will be routed, 24 hours a day, to the nearest available crisis center. This call routing is based on crisis center capacity and availability. Crisis Services is a dedicated NSPL crisis center. If you need to connect to a crisis center outside of the Buffalo and Erie County area, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can assist you with connecting you your local crisis center near your area by calling 1-800-273-TALK.
Afterhours Clinic Line: Crisis Services serves as the Afterhours phone service for specified mental health clinics in Erie County from 4 PM to 9 AM the following day during a regular week, and on weekends and holidays. The crisis Afterhours Clinic line is available for clients of specified mental health clinics whose calls are forwarded to Crisis Services 24 hotline. These calls are answered by Crisis Services Staff who have the ability to provide supportive counseling and clients’ mental health needs while their mental health clinic is closed.
