Crisis responders who answer veterans hotline warn of ‘a lapse in the mission’ under Trump administration

The crisis responders who answer the national hotline run by the Department of Veterans Affairs are often talking to former armed servicemembers at life’s lowest moments, many contemplating harming themselves or others.

The crisis responders who answer the national hotline run by the Department of Veterans Affairs are often talking to former armed servicemembers at life’s lowest moments, many contemplating harming themselves or others. With President Donald Trump ordering federal workers to return to the office, some are now answering those calls from veterans in crisis in open cubicles around other federal workers. Several spoke to CNN about using hushed tones and even resorting to working from their car in the office’s garage for privacy. The hotline staff no longer have their own office space because the buildings that housed the call center’s three national hubs – in Georgia, Kansas and New York – were all closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the people who answer the Veterans Crisis Line have worked remotely. “They’re talking to them about their homicidal thoughts, their suicidal thoughts,” said Erika Alexander, president of AFGE 518, a local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees Union, and crisis responder in Atlanta. “No one should be sitting next to another random federal employee discussing some of the things that they have to discuss about the calls.” The end of telework is one of several changes that have thrown the Veterans Crisis Line into turmoil during the Trumpadministration. About a dozen hotline staffers were laid off as part of efforts to downsize the federal government only to be rehired, while others are taking leave because of the untenable working conditions given the sensitivities of their work. “There’s going to be a lapse in the resources and the services that they get,” Alexander said. “If there are not enough employees to be there for the crisis hotline, then that’s going to definitely cause a lapse in the mission, which is veteran safety – it will be a very significant lapse.”