Year: 1990 Source: Annals of Emergency Medicine, v.19, no.9, (September 1990), p.1077-1078 SIEC No: 19910289

This letter to the editor is a response to an article which described the policy of an emergency department (ED) towards handling suicide calls. ED personnel were to express concern, & then refer the caller to a crisis centre. The author of this letter agrees ED staff are not trained for crisis calls, but suggests instead of hanging up, the hospital should get call forwarding to the local crisis hotline, so neither party had to hang up. (VM)