Careline answers the call of duty

By Paul Warner

This story is part of an Outlook series showcasing agencies affiliated with United Appeal for Athens County. This year's county-wide campaign goal is $203,000.

"You never know what you're going to get when you answer that phone line," said Mark Sutton, the director of Careline, a 24-hour crisis intervention and information referral hotline.

"For someone sitting in a counseling office, they know who's on the other end of that phone line," he added. "Not to say that counselors don't have stressful jobs, but it's a whole different ball game."

Careline, a division of Tri-County Mental Health and Counseling Services, has been in existence since 1971. Sutton, a licensed social worker who was born and raised in Athens, has been the director of the nonprofit organization for nearly 18 years.

"We are one of the few generic crisis hotlines remaining that anybody can call for any reason," Sutton said. "We offer service to anybody who is looking for some kind of assistance -- whether it's someone who needs someone to listen to them, to help them problem solve or help link them up with a service."

Sutton said many rural hotlines have been forced to abandon their generic roles and only deal with threats to self or others calls because of health care reform. But due to recent cuts in state funding, Careline is hurting.

The organization is down to one full-time employee (Sutton) and a small handful of part-timers. The rest of the staff is composed of volunteers.

"Our workers go through a stringent program that includes 50 hours of training in return for 100 hours of volunteer commitment," Sutton said. "It generally works out quite well, but our numbers (of volunteers) are down."

In the fiscal year of 2001, Sutton said Careline handled more than 29,000 calls. This year, the organization is projecting to receive more than 30,000.

"When we take a crisis call, you have to find out, 'What's the big picture,'" Sutton said. "The person might be asking for some sort of an assistance, but maybe domestic violence has been involved or alcohol issues with the family or divorce or unemployment. It could be a number of issues that started out with a conversation about not being able to pay a $200 utility bill."

In the future, Sutton wants Careline to be a part of a universal 2-1-1 hotline number that callers can access from any point around the country to receive human service information.

"Careline does a lot of good as we serve as a safety net for all different systems," Sutton said. "And our ability to link people to services that can help them with their crisis, problems or stress is certainly a benefit. We also are essentially role modeling effective communication skills to teach people how to make decisions and problem solve. That's something they can apply to different parts of their lives that might help them down the road."

Paul Warner was a summer intern with University Communications and Marketing. He now is with the Office of Sports Information.