MENTAL HEALTH-RELATED CALLS TO THE CDC NATIONAL AIDS HOTLINE

The CDC National AIDS Hotline provides confidential HIV-related inform ation and referrals to anonymous callers, twenty-four hours a day. As part of a continuing quality improvement assessment of caller informat ional needs, 302 randomly selected anonymous overnight calls to the Ho tline were evaluated for mental health-related content. Of 302 calls, 34 calls (11.3%) were mental health-related, in that callers spoke abo ut specific mental health-related topics or requested mental health re ferrals, and 14 calls (4.6%) included signs or symptoms from the Diagn ostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM- IV) potentially indicative of mental illness. The results suggest that training in recognizing and referring mental health calls might be us eful for Hotline workers. The results also serve as a reminder for all health care professionals and organizations of the potential for over lap between patients' mental health-related needs and patients' HIV-re lated needs.