Hotlines are all different in their mandates and policies regarding repeat callers. The other line you called and had the problem with might have been more of a referral service rather than a crisis or warm line.

I volunteer with my city's main suicide crisis line, but we also provide emotional support and connection to our regular callers, most of whom are just socially isolated. We have some callers who literally call every day just to talk. We have guidelines for handling those calls, ie - try to keep them to 20 min or so, but if it's a slow day, I often go over that.

The only time we'd tell someone we can't talk to them, if they've called multiple times in the same day, and are just rehashing the same stuff, in which case, we'd gently suggest that they call back tomorrow.

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