"I Just Needed Somebody to Talk to": The Role of the Veterans Crisis Line in Social Connection for Women Veterans

Background and Purpose: In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General called the nation’s attention to an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation,” noting the adverse health impacts of social isolation and a need to invest in research to further understand, and policies and programs that support, social connection. Women veterans, as a minority among both the veteran population and among the non-veteran population of women, face particular risks of loneliness and social isolation. Among other impacts on health and wellbeing, loneliness and social isolation are contributors to suicidal ideation and behavior – also identified as a crisis among the veteran population and growing concern among the population of women veterans in particular. The Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) is a key component of the VA suicide prevention effort, offering free, telephone or text support 24-hours-per-day, 7-days-per-week. The objective of this study was to explore women veterans’ experiences with the VCL through analysis of VCL contact records and qualitative interviews with women veterans who had used VCL.

Methods: We conducted in-depth qualitative telephone interviews with 26 women veterans from across the country who had contacted VCL within the 12 months prior to study recruitment. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim; we used team-based inductive content analysis to code the data and identify key themes. For this analysis, we examined data related to loneliness and social connection.

Results: Participants spoke about reaching out to VCL due to a need for social connection in a moment of emotional distress. Women veterans spoke about the importance of being able to have a human connection at any time of day or night and the benefits of the VCL as a service to help in acute moments of distress when they did not feel that they could or wanted to turn to others in their lives.

Conclusions and Impacts: Study findings reveal the importance of the VCL as a critical resource to intervene on loneliness and provide social connection in times of acute distress, to support women veterans to alleviate an emotional crisis state through human connection. Findings extend prior work on suicide prevention for women veterans and align with theories related to suicide risk and gender among this population. Findings hold implications for VCL policy and programming. Findings also hold implications for services outside of the VA and veteran populations, including for community-based crisis services and hotline services.