Addressing the Complex Needs of Customers Who Contact the Veterans Crisis Line

Since its creation in 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) has provided 24/7, confidential crisis support services for Veterans, Service Members, and their families, supporting the VA's highest clinical priority of suicide prevention. As part of this effort, VCL created the Customers with Complex Needs (CWCN) program to manage the individual needs and operational impact of VCL customers who call at a high frequency, are abusive toward hotline staff, exhibit sexually inappropriate behavior, and/or make threats of violence. This paper describes the VCL CWCN program and customer characteristics. Call data from 2012 to 2022, including operational data for 1,096 CWCN customers identified from October 2017 to December 2020, were used for analysis. At the cohort's peak size in 2020, calls from CWCN customers accounted for 0.4% of all distinct phone numbers received by VCL and for 22.1% of total VCL call volume. Implementation of the CWCN program was associated with significant annual reductions in average individual call volume among high frequency callers. However, no change in call volume was observed among nonhigh frequency callers. Formative challenges and future directions for the CWCN program and implications for other crisis lines are discussed.