Minnesota Mental Health Hotline Closing Friday

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota mental health hotline is closing Friday for financial reasons.

For nearly 50 years, Crisis Connection had connected Minnesotans with local psychiatrists and counselors as well as first-responders and emergency rooms.

Matt Eastwood is CEO of Canvas Health, which operates Crisis Connection. Eastwood tells Minnesota Public Radio News callers will reach a voicemail message starting Friday.

The service took about 50,000 calls last year. Eastwood says Crisis Connection has seen a "significant" jump in the number of calls this year. So far this year the line has had about 20,000 calls.

The call center is closing because of overall losses and insufficient funds to pay counselors.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that Crisis Connection operates will also be going away. Its calls will be routed elsewhere.

There is a 24 hour Crisis Response line that serves southeastern Minnesota that will continue serving the area at 1-844-CRISIS2 (1-844-274-7472).