San Diego teens have contacted the national hotline, Teen Line 4,000 times since January according to Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, the organization that runs the hotline.
Teen Line is a peer-to-peer youth mental health hotline. Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services in Los Angeles trains teen listeners to answer calls, texts, and emails from other teens across the country.
“Teens’ voices can easily be, like, dismissed because, like, they’re just a kid, or the parents are like, we know better, or why are you sad?” said Sydney, a Teen Line volunteer from San Diego. “But I think it’s important to really listen to them and give them a chance to express themselves, understand that their struggles are real.”…