The warm line provides essential support to individuals dealing with anxiety, financial pressure, and loneliness, notably increasing calls post-wildfires. It has helped many peer counselors, often with mental illness, gain employment and purpose by assisting others. Despite its importance, funding cuts threaten the service's continuity, forcing a temporary shift to volunteer staffing. The local warm line operates with reduced hours and anticipates significant challenges ahead as it struggles to sustain its services amid budget constraints.
But for students anxious about taking a test or getting bullied, or men in their 50s feeling the financial pressure of supporting a family, or for an elderly person who hasn't seen their family in weeks and is thinking about suicide, Durham said, the warm line has been crucial.
When Durham learned the county planned to pull funding for operating the Orange County warm line - which at its peak was close to $11 million a year - she began looking for alternatives.
Being heard is healing, Durham said.
She found about 100 volunteers to staff the local line from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m., instead of 24/7, but even at the reduced capacity, she can only keep it going two to three more months.
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