(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — For 17 years, Roger Breisch of Batavia has volunteered as a phone counselor with the National Suicide Prevention Life Line.
"Nearly 4,000 hours on the phone and well over 10,000 phone calls," Breisch says of his experience.
In recent months, the calls he's received have changed, he says.
"Not only because of the coronavirus but also because of the protests regarding Black Lives Matter,” he explains. “Those have increased the tension and the stress and the anxiety, sometimes the depression, in almost every call.”
Still, Breisch says what people he helps need hasn't changed: to be heard.
"They just need someone to listen and not judge them for what they're going through,” he said.
Unfortunately, Breisch says, there’s a shortage of people to listen.
"We are desperately short of volunteers. If anyone is at all interested in giving back to their community this is a tremendously rewarding way to do that," he said.