Suicide Prevention Hotline in Richmond County (Staten Island), NY

Free, Confidential Crisis Support for Staten Island, Every Hour of the Day

Staten Island residents in Richmond County can reach free suicide and crisis help 24/7. Our trained crisis counselors answer any hour at (866) 629-4564. You can also call or text 988 for a New York counselor, or request the NYC Mobile Crisis Team at 888-692-9355. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911.

Reaching Crisis Help on Staten Island

Richmond County is the New York City borough of Staten Island, and residents here can reach support through both national lines and New York City’s own crisis system. Pick up the phone at (866) 629-4564 and one of our trained crisis counselors is there at any hour to hear you out, sit with whatever you are carrying, and help you sort out a next move. Dialing or texting 988 connects Staten Islanders to a New York counselor through call, text, or chat. If the moment calls for someone in the room, the NYC Mobile Crisis Team comes out to the neighborhood. The calls arrive from St. George at midnight, from New Dorp at the end of a bruising week, and from Tottenville when someone fears for a relative down the block. No emergency is required, and no caller has to share a name.

Choosing the Right Number Tonight

The right starting point tracks with how pressing things feel. For a counselor by phone or text, 988 is the fastest door. When someone needs a visit in person, the NYC Mobile Crisis Team at 888-692-9355 will travel to a Staten Island home or street. To think it through with someone who can stay on the line and point you to the right local step, dial (866) 629-4564. And if physical danger is here now, 911 or the psychiatric emergency room at Richmond University Medical Center is the place to turn. On any of these calls, you and a crisis counselor can sketch a brief safety plan together, mapping the triggers, the steps that calm things, and the people worth calling.

In-Person Crisis Care Across Richmond County

Staten Island has mental health crisis services you can walk into or invite to your door, not only phone lines, including immediate psychiatric help through a walk-in emergency program. Richmond University Medical Center runs a Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program at 355 Bard Avenue, open around the clock as a walk-in and a 911-receiving site for psychiatric emergencies. Its mobile crisis outreach line, (718) 818-6900, takes non-emergency referrals and sees people within a day or two. Citywide, the NYC Mobile Crisis Team at 888-692-9355 sends counselors into Richmond County neighborhoods. For a longer stay, St. Joseph’s Medical Center runs a short-term crisis respite program in the West Brighton area at (718) 876-2810, which takes referrals rather than walk-ins.

Staten Island Crisis Lines and Local Services

The contacts below serve Richmond County directly and stay open around the clock unless noted. Each is a real New York City or Staten Island service you can reach right now.

Getting From a Call to Ongoing Care on Staten Island

Staten Island’s crisis options connect into one path, from a first call to longer-term care. A crisis counselor can help you gauge whether tonight calls for a phone conversation, the NYC Mobile Crisis Team at 888-692-9355, or a walk-in visit to Richmond University Medical Center. For support that outlasts the immediate moment, the same counselor can point you toward a Richmond County depression or mental health provider that fits, so the handoff from crisis line to local clinic does not fall on you alone.

Warning Signs of Suicide, and When to Reach Out

The warning signs of suicide include talking about death or wanting to disappear, saying they feel like a burden or trapped, pulling away from friends and family, sharp shifts in sleep or mood, giving away possessions, and heavier drinking or drug use. Any one of these is reason enough to start a conversation. On Staten Island, you do not have to wait for a crisis to act: if you or someone you know shows these early signs of suicide, call or text 988, or talk it through with a trained crisis counselor at (866) 629-4564.

Depression and suicide are closely linked, but the early signs are often quiet, a person who stops answering texts, sleeps far more or far less, or speaks about the future as if they will not be there for it. Naming what you notice, plainly and without panic, can open the door. If you need someone to talk to right now, a counselor is one call away, day or night.

One of the most effective steps a family can take is reducing access to lethal means during a high-risk period, keeping medications locked away and firearms stored securely and separately from ammunition. Putting time and distance between a person and a method can be lifesaving, and a counselor can talk through how to do this at (866) 629-4564. For more on recognizing risk, the 988 Lifeline warning-signs guide is a trusted reference.

Suicide Prevention Across Staten Island

Suicide is a serious concern in New York City, and Richmond County shares it. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene data for 2013 to 2022 put Staten Island’s suicide rate at about 6.2 per 100,000 residents, among the higher borough rates in the city. Behind each figure is a person and a family, which is why a free line anyone can reach at any hour matters as much as the clinics and crisis teams. Wherever you are on the island, the steps hold: call (866) 629-4564 to talk now, or request the NYC Mobile Crisis Team at 888-692-9355 for a local response.

Richmond County Neighborhoods Served

This support reaches every Staten Island neighborhood, from the North Shore at St. George, Port Richmond, and Stapleton to the South Shore at Great Kills, Eltingville, and Tottenville, along with New Dorp, South Beach, Willowbrook, and Travis on the mid-island. Residents of Port Richmond and the North Shore looking for depression support, and anyone across the South Shore in a harder moment, reach the same trained crisis counselors and local services. Wherever you live in Richmond County, the same options are open to you by phone and in person.

Neighboring boroughs and counties have their own crisis pages too, including Kings County, Queens County, Nassau County, and New York statewide.