Patrice Schroeder, 211’s community relations specialist, at the organization’s call center in Lantana. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Ron Hayes
In December 1971, a hotline offering help to people struggling with drugs began answering calls in Palm Beach County.
Crisis Line had about 90 volunteers, mostly students from Palm Beach Junior College and Florida Atlantic University. They answered the phones 24/7, with a 42-page “Where To Turn” booklet prepared by the Community Services Council of Palm Beach County to help them through their four-hour shifts.
Crisis Line’s founder, a local psychologist named Robert K. Alsofrom, estimated those volunteers would receive perhaps 2,000 calls a month, or 24,000 a year.
In 2023, that same agency answered about 48,000 calls for help from Palm Beach County — and served four other counties as well.
Dr. Alsofrom, who died in 1993, would no doubt be thrilled, and perhaps amazed, at how his fledgling hotline has grown in ways he might never have imagined.
In 2000, the Federal Communications Commission designated 211 as the national number for information and referral services, similar to 911 for emergencies. Crisis Line became 211 Palm Beach and Treasure Coast and expanded its service area to Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties.
In 2023, the agency’s 22 “resource specialists” handled almost 125,000 calls for help in its five-county service area, from people seeking help with housing or mental health issues, transportation, household needs, or just wanting an ear willing to listen.
In addition, 211’s Help Me Grow program offers free development screening for children up to the age of 5½.
A “special needs caregiver” works with about 350 families each year, offering support to clients up to age 22.
Sunshine Calls checks in with about 700 seniors daily, just to say hello and be sure all is well. It also checks in with family caregivers, because even caregivers sometimes need care.
The Florida Veterans Support Line connects veterans experiencing difficulty with the transition back to civilian life with veterans who understand. And the Heroes4Heroes service does the same for people in law enforcement, paramedics, firefighters and other first responders.
When you call the National Suicide Hotline (988), the phone rings at 211 Palm Beach and Treasure Coast.
Last year, the agency received 4,583 calls from people who wanted to kill themselves.
Answering a call for help
On a Saturday night in 1976, a volunteer working the midnight to 4 a.m. shift at Crisis Line answered a call he has never forgotten.
John Deese was 18. The woman on the other end of the line was trying to kill herself, and nearly succeeding.
“Usually, we had two people on each shift, but this night the other person was sick and we had no replacement, so I was alone,” Deese remembers.
Prank calls were rare, but not unheard of on Saturdays after midnight.
“I could tell this was a real call,” Deese says.
The woman, who had taken pills, was still alert enough to want help, but couldn’t speak to tell Deese where she was.
“I had one of those cross-reference books that lists towns and street names and numbers, so I’d name a town and told the woman to tap on her phone if she lived there.”
Deese named towns. She tapped on Palm Springs.
Now he had to keep her alert while also calling police on a separate line.
He named streets. She tapped. Finally, he named house numbers. And she tapped.
“I heard the breaking glass over the phone when the police broke in to help,” he says.
The woman lived to thank him.
“I went home that night and we sat up for several hours talking about it,” Deese says. “It was stressful, but the whole experience gave me a perspective on the real world.”
It also gave him a devotion to 211 that has lasted a lifetime.
John Deese is 66 now, and in addition to serving as the mayor of Manalapan, he has been on 211’s board of directors for decades, and currently leads the agency’s $6 million capital campaign to replace its aging facilities.
Some guidelines for taking calls are posted above a desk.
Listening, not judging
When John Deese was being trained to answer calls all those years ago, Dr. Alsofrom called his method “nondirect counseling.” Today’s specialists call it “active listening,” but the approach is similar.
Each specialist receives about 100 hours of training, learning what to say, and not say, what to offer, and what never to promise.
“We’re not telling them we’re going to solve their problems,” says Patrice Schroeder, 211’s community relations specialist, who has been with the agency 18 years. “We can’t tell them their situation is going to get better.”
Resource specialists are not psychiatrists or psychologists.
“We don’t provide mental health counseling,” Schroeder emphasizes. “We’re trained to de-escalate and stabilize the caller, then connect them to mental health services.”
Mostly, they listen. Really listen.
“I see you lost your job and are having trouble paying bills,” the specialist might say. “We can connect you with an agency that does job searches.”
And they don’t judge.
“We’re not there to say, ‘It’s not that bad.’ We can’t judge what is a crisis for somebody else,” Schroeder notes. “If it’s a suicidal crisis, that’s bad; but a teenage breakup can be a crisis for that teenager.”
When a 211 phone line rings, the specialist never knows who will be on the other end of the call. It could be someone asking what hours Boynton Beach’s Oceanfront Park is open.
It could be someone holding the phone in one hand and a handgun in the other.
Or it could be about a hurricane, or two.
A resource in stormy times
While Hurricanes Helene and Milton were making up their minds, Kelly was sitting at a desk in 211’s Lantana facility, answering calls.
“A lot of our callers have no access to computers or TV,” she explains. “They’ve only heard we’re getting a hurricane and want to know if they should put their shutters up. They didn’t realize it was on the west coast.”
Kelly — resource specialists use first names only — has been answering 211 calls eight hours a day, five days a week for nine years. Calming people down is big part of her job.
“Calming people down is all day,” she says.
Most of the calls are from women. “Especially single mothers caring for children on their own.”
When the caller says, “I’m ready to die, I haven’t told anybody I feel that way,” Kelly asks, “What’s got you so upset you would want to do that?”
Keep them talking. Let them share their feelings.
“Usually it’s a big event,” she says. “They’ve lost their job, or their home, or their marriage. Or utilities. They need $50 to keep the lights on.”
Kelly has almost countless resources at her fingertips, agencies that can help with temporary housing or food.
She has taken suicide calls from 10-year-olds. She has taken calls from gay and lesbian teens whose families have shunned them.
She takes a sadly large number of calls from people who just need someone to talk to.
“They have no one on the planet to talk to,” she says, “so we’re here.”
Schroeder recalls a woman whose husband was disabled, using a wheelchair, and whose child had autism. She was working full-time to support the family but was afraid of being laid off. She couldn’t tell her family. So, she told 211.
“We may not have all the answers,” Schroeder says, “but we’re the place to start.”
Answering the crisis calls was stressful when John Deese did it 48 years ago, and it’s stressful for Kelly today. But the resource specialists keep coming back.
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘You’re so terrible they should shut that whole place down,’” Kelly says. “But I’ve also had people say, ‘People are lucky you were born.’
“And I’ve had people tell me I saved their life.
“That’s a reason for me to come back tomorrow.”
Along with phone numbers and other reminders, workers at the call center surround themselves with words of encouragement.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Three little numbers serve big numbers
211 Palm Beach and Treasure Coast is a three-digit phone call away for people needing assistance. Here’s a look at the totals, types of calls and ages of the callers who reached out to 211, which serves a five-county area, in 2023.
Calls for help
• Five-county total: 124,561
• Palm Beach County total: about 48,000
Age of callers
• Under 18: 2.5%
• 18-59: 32.3%
• 60-plus: 18.6%
• No age reported: 46.7%
Top needs addressed for 211 callers (by number)
• Mental health/substance use disorder: 42,710
• Housing: 36,508
• Utility assistance: 11,249
• Information services: 8,530
• Legal, consumer and public safety services: 8,104
• Health care: 7,689
Suicide prevention calls
• Total calls: 4,583
Annual budget
• Total budget: $7,839,802
Source: 211 Palm Beach and Treasure Coast 2023 annual report
For extensive information about the services and policies of 211 Palm Beach and Treasure Coast, visit 211palmbeach.org.
To donate, visit 211palmbeach.org/donate.
If your life is in crisis, please call 211.
