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Copper Shores Community Health Foundation plans to launch the Copper Shores Sexual Assault Hotline later this spring.
The launch of the Sexual Assault Hotline will overlap with the end of the general crisis hotline, which the foundation took over from Dial Help after three local non-profit organizations merged to become the Copper Shores Community Heath Foundation last year.
Since 2019, then Dial Help, Copper Shores Education and Outreach have sought ways to more effectively take calls for crises in the community. Education and Outreach program Director Kristine Martens says that the decision to reduce the general crisis line’s services in favor of a sexual assault hotline was due to several factors including; a decrease in calls coming into the hotline in general, the rise in more recognizable easier to remember national and regional services, and a desire to continue some form of sexual assault hotline for the local area.
“We’re not starting a brand new service as far as a crisis line for survivors of sexual assault. That has always existed at Dial-Help. We’re going to continue that part of it. In part, because of the funding that we receive, we have to keep a 24-hour line open so that survivors of sexual assault can get a hold of us. So we could be dispatched if that was needed. So I just want to make it clear, that the crisis line going away did not make a new thing happen. That’s always been here.
It’s not a change in services. We just won’t be answering it. We’re going to have the Michigan Coalition and Domestic and Sexual Violence, they launched a hotline a few years ago, and we’re just going to have those folks answer that line now and work with the advocates that we have up here.” – Kristine Martens, Program Director, Copper Shores Outreach & Education
The former general crisis hotline serviced all 15 Upper Peninsula Counties. The Copper Shores Sexual Assault Hotline will service primarily Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon counties. Martens adds that anyone from around the region can still call the SA hotline, however, the resources will be aimed more locally to the western Upper Peninsula.
“So these folks are specifically trained, and this is the only kind of call that they answer. So when somebody from our area now calls this number, they’re going to talk to an advocate on the crisis line. This is all they talk to people about while they’re answering the phone. So they’re very well informed about what the health options are, what your legal options are, what are your rights, how to just provide that support and that listening ear. And they’re very well trained.” – Kristine Martens, Program Director, Copper Shores Outreach & Education
Martens says that the general crisis line saw a drop-off in calls coming in after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then those numbers have not rebounded. Copper Shores believes that may be partly due to new programs, with larger resources from state and the federal governments, that are more easily recognized numbers, such as 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline with MiCAL.
“Dial Help opened their crisis line many years ago, in 1971. It was a crisis line really specific to individuals with substance use disorder or who had been using substances. Wondering if they have a problem, and thinking about wanting to end using those. And over the years that crisis line evolved to become a more general crisis line. Then we started answering the lifeline, which is suicide specific.
At that time you would have a general crisis line more specific to suicide. And then little agencies, Dial Help, domestic violence shelters, they’d have something available for 24 hours for people to get a hold of them (for Sexual Assalut or Domestic Violence victims). But that was kind of it.
As people started looking at the issues we are having around mental health more. More issue-specific crisis lines started to open. And they would train their staff for callers that had a specific issue. When you call a general crisis line they are trained, like at Dial Help, we were trained to take any kind of call in. But if you had something that was a little beyond what a general crisis, that was where our ability to help ended…We would refer you to someone who would have more specific information for your crisis.
So with these more issue-specific crisis lines, people are more likely to call these specific lines. Because they know when they call them, they know that the assistance they’ll get is the kind that they need.” – Kristine Martens, Program Director, Copper Shores Outreach & Education
Copper Shores Education and Outreach says that the decision to reduce the general crisis line’s services in favor of the Sexual Assault Hotline was not an easy one to make. After 50 years of service to the community the foundation understands the impact it had for victims, suicidal individuals, or those looking for substance use assistance. Victims of sexual assault who call the Copper Shores Hotline after it launches this spring can expect certified and highly trained victim advocates on the other end to listen and share local resources. Copper Shores assure that the former Dial Help General Crisis Hotline will end services on June 1st for more generalized calls. The foundation and the MCEDSV are working to finalize the partnership for the new hotline. Those interested in learning more about the Copper Shores Sexual Assault Hotline coming to the community can find more details here and here.
