US election sees spike in calls to suicide hotlines

Suicide and crisis hotlines in the US have seen an increase in the number of calls received since the 8 November election.

The spike in calls hit as the results of the election were called, with the two most mentioned words "scared" and "election", with worries about LGBTQ issues featuring heavily in the conversations.

It is believed the number of calls surged shortly before Hillary Clinton conceded to Donald Trump, in an unprecedented jump compared to previous US elections.

Project director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline John Draper told AZ Central: "When there is a national or a community event that causes, for some people, a sense of anxiety or worry, that can aggravate any other worries they have in their life.

"I'm not sure anybody anticipated this. I think we have not had an experience in any election where we have seen this increase in calls. One would say there was no precedent for this election and there certainly was no precedent for this on our crisis line."

He added: "When they call us, if they start talking about the event that precipitated them to call, what usually happens is we don't end up talking about the election or what it was that upset them; we end up talking about their lives."

Hotlines specific to the LGBTQ community also saw a rise in calls, with deputy executive of The Trevor Project Steven Mendelsohn explaining to the news service that people are "worried that their rights are going to be taken away and they're worried that they're not going to be safe.

"People are fearful that the gains we made are going to start being lost."

Trump's surprise win was not expected by pollsters or pundits, and prompted a backlash from Democrat voters, in particular young people – with students from several universities in California staging walk-outs and campus demonstrations after the results were called.