The Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention (CESP) provides counseling, referrals, grief support programs, and even well-being checks for tens of thousands of older and disabled adults in California and beyond. When we launched our program in 1973, older adults were the most likely age group to commit suicide, but they represented only a small percentage of calls to suicide hotlines. This inspired Dr. Patrick Arbore to form the Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention & Grief Related Services. He also founded Friendship Line in the effort to address this public health problem, and recruit volunteers of all ages who specifically chosen to counsel older people. We discovered that older adults weren’t calling crisis lines, because they didn’t see themselves as being in crisis. Instead, they were suffering from chronic loneliness and undiagnosed depression. After 40 years of listening, we can tell you that older adults “cry for help” in markedly different ways than teens, because depression looks different when we age.
We are here to help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We are eager to connect with anyone who might be lonely or depressed, because connections are what bind us to life.
Center for Elderly Suicide Prevention Call Center:
Friendship Line — 800.971.0016
Friendship Line California — 888.670.1360
24-Hour Accredited Telephone Hotline/Warm-line began service in 1973:
•Call-In Service – Confidential telephone connections for people 60+ (their caregivers or younger disabled) who may be lonely, isolated, bereaved, depressed, anxious and/or thinking about death or suicide
•A caller does not need to be in a crisis to use the call-in service
•Patrick Arbore, Founder & Director, CESP – parbore@ioaging.org or 415.750.4133