New Name and Brand Reflects Core Mission of Timely Crisis Response

Seven Counties Services, Inc. Crisis and Information Center (CIC) is now the Hope Now Hotline. The new name and tag line – “Where crisis meets opportunity,” better reflect the core mission of providing immediate hope through professional telephone counseling for persons in emotional crisis. The phone number and the hours of service (all 24 each and every day) will not change.

CIC has been a hallmark of community compassion since its birth in 1971 as a long-time partnership involving community mental health, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and state departments charged with mental health, local social service departments and Metro United Way.

Services have always been available free of charge to anyone in the community, anytime and any day. That will remain with the Hope Now Hotline.

“This is a vital safety net service that is unique in Kentucky in its breadth and scope,” says Anthony M. Zipple, Seven Counties President and CEO. “What we offer is far broader than the state-mandated services. The CIC handles over 75,000 calls a year and over 2,000 of them involve critical and immediate response. The service saves lives.”

Scott Been, Director of CIC and now the Hope Now Hotline, says, “the CIC number—589-4313—has become the ‘one number to call’ for crisis intervention, suicide prevention and information and referral to health and human services in our region. While our history has been grounded in both crisis and information services, our greatest expertise and our passion is in helping individuals in crisis. We want our name to reflect that so that our callers have a clear and complete expectation of what they can expect and what we pledge to provide.”

Other community resources provide excellent community information and referral services, including Metrocall 3-1-1 and Metro United Way’s 2-1-1,” says Dr. Zipple. “Although community resource referral will always be a part of our menu of services, the “heart and soul” of our work is in providing a vital mental health ‘safety-net’ service for the community. We want our name to clearly reflect what we provide – a one-of a-kind emergency mental health service over the phone.”

CIC became actively involved in suicide awareness and prevention activities locally through membership in the Louisville Suicide Prevention Coalition and The Louisville Metro Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, across Kentucky through membership in the Kentucky Suicide Prevention Group and nationally as the first and primary provider of SAMHSA National Suicide Prevention Lifeline services for Kentucky.

“As we expanded our work with local, state and national suicide prevention groups to raise the level of awareness of suicide as a public health issue, the need for intervention services increased, and our role as experts in suicide warning signs, risk factors and lethality assessment has become vital in all aspects of suicide prevention efforts throughout the Commonwealth,” says Been. “We also work closely with other emergency services in the community, including the Louisville Metro Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Training (C.I.T.) program.”

“We hope our new name will prompt the community to remember that we provide “vital” emergency care and to value us as an available emergency support function, similar to police, fire or EMS,” says Zipple. “Our new name conveys that in times of crisis there is always hope, despite how great a person’s crisis or to what degree resources may or may not be available to them. Our vital services are available now, in the heart of the crisis, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is no need for someone feeling desperate or hopeless to wait when help and support is just a phone call away.”