Founded in 1958, the Suicide Prevention Center (SPC), a program of Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, created the first 24-Hour Suicide Prevention Crisis Line in the United States. Today, the Crisis Line continues to offer hope to residents of Southern California. Each year, more than 21,000 calls are made to the Crisis Line, with an estimated 10 percent made by people at high risk of harming themselves. More than 600 people each year receive emergency medical and psychiatric intervention as a result of their call to SPC.

Additionally, SPC offers a bereavement program for those who have lost a loved one to suicide. Survivors After Suicide (SAS) serves more than 200 families each year, helping them cope with the loss of their loved one through its 8-week support group and survivors’ newsletter.

Outreach and education are key elements in suicide prevention. Since its inception in 2001, the Minorities Outreach Program has delivered educational presentations on suicide prevention to more than 11,000 people in the diverse communities of Southern California.

The newest program of the Suicide Prevention Center, the Suicide Response Team (SRT) works closely with the Los Angeles City Mayor’s Office to offer immediate crisis counseling at the scene of a suicide. Trained members of the SRT, who are all volunteers and survivors, comfort families and connect them to community resources when loneliness and despair seem overwhelming.

SPC also offers training and support to the FBI, local police and a myriad of mental health, health and education professionals.

Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with more than 60 years of experience providing mental health and substance abuse services in Los Angeles County. A leader in community mental health care, it offers program services through six divisions: Emergency Services, Adult Services, Family Services - North, Family Services - South, Substance Abuse Services and Training. Under these divisions, nearly 44,000 people each year receive help at nine locations.