GiveBetter x Houston

Crisis Intervention of Houston

Crisis stabilization and referral

Research time: ~9 min on GPT-6.1 Sol
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.
  • Modeling — estimated costs, QALYs and uncertainty.
  • Source audit — checked claims, assumptions and calculations.

Updated: 2026-10-06

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Summary

What do they do? Crisis Intervention of Houston provides free, anonymous crisis counseling through telephone and teen text services. Trained volunteers listen, help callers stabilize emotionally and connect them with other support. Its programs also include suicide-bereavement groups, education and community crisis response.

Why we’re interested in this organization:

  • Current recipient-owned pages identify a concrete local hotline and trained volunteer service.

  • Primary caller studies support a plausible short-term distress mechanism without treating calls as lives saved.

  • The recalibration preserves health and signed resources and distinguishes exposure from benefit.

Our main reservations:

  • Historical contacts are not current unique households, and 988 support may substitute.

  • Counselor-training evidence does not identify CIH-versus-988 QALYs or net earnings.

  • Full exposure burdens make the short-duration reference nonpositive; other programs and unpaid resources remain unmeasured.

What do you get for your dollar? The current model estimates net harm after health and household-resource effects; no positive cost per DALY applies.

Additional short-term stabilization and useful support linkage; contacts not deaths prevented

1. What do they do?

Crisis Intervention of Houston provides free, anonymous crisis counseling through telephone and teen text services. Trained volunteers listen, help callers stabilize emotionally and connect them with other support. Its programs also include suicide-bereavement groups, education and community crisis response.

2. Monitoring and information sharing

The FY2024 return explicitly dates 35,812 calls, texts and chats to FY2022–2023; the current site's 3M since 1970 is cumulative. Neither supplies a current annual unique household cohort. Request deduplicated adult/teen callers, repeat contact, residence, alternative 988 use, referral uptake, completed follow-up, validated distress/utility measures, privacy/escalation harms and incremental volunteer hours. The .2 adult-household mapping and .9 Houston share remain judgments.

3. Qualitative assessment

Gould 2007 followed 380 of 1,085 selected adult suicidal callers, with nonrandom attrition and no untreated comparator; improvement cannot fix CIH's causal fraction or utility duration. Gould 2013 examined 1,507 calls from 1,410 callers at 17 centers and found better end-call outcomes with ASIST-trained counselors: this compares counseling approaches, not hotline versus no care. Its Wiley abstract was read, not blocked PMC full text. Gould 2025 interviewed 437 adults at 12 centers in 2020–2021; perceived benefit is not measured mortality or a randomized effect. These primary studies support a short-term distress mechanism, not local causal QALYs or income coefficients. Existing 988, providers and family assistance remain the baseline. Recipient identity and owned donation form are unchanged; donation checkout/payee and current volunteer capacity need confirmation.

4. What do you get for your dollar?

The initial $1.5M per DALY remains a historical diagnostic, with 0.11 clinical QALYs and +0.012011 income equivalents. The corrected reference retains all initial coefficients but applies full $2 one-off incremental time/access burden and .00001 health harm to all 7,162.4 distinct household proxies, not only 1,074.36 benefit-attributed proxies. Health is 0.05 QALYs and signed income −0.261883 equivalents, total −0.210329; no finite positive current price follows. This conditional partial-channel reference is not evidence that CIH's whole portfolio harms people. Whole annual $181,993 expense is divided by limited hotline benefits; bereavement, education, crisis response and mortality channels remain unknown, not zero. The .3 clinical response, .02 utility, .02-year duration (7.3 days), .15 additionality and .9 local share remain judgments. Original studies do not justify more favorable local coefficients, so no price was forced. Positive total would require about 20.54 days at unchanged utility and other inputs; 13.5-day follow-up sensitivity is still nonpositive, while hypothetical one-month benefit gives $1.2M. A follow-up date is not observed benefit duration. Zero incremental time cost gives $1.6M but is only an alternative-burden sensitivity. $2 is per deduplicated household proxy beyond substitute service burdens, not per contact; $10/proxy represents $2 on each of five contacts implied by .2 mapping. The 53.718 resource-success proxies receive $100 net usable work/referral resources after taxes, benefits and alternative providers; overlap .5 adjusts only positive components before one household log, then full $2 cost. Other exposed proxies lose $2. No survivor wages or free-service retail value are counted. Benefit failure retains exposure burdens and harms; no exposure is distinct. Distinct payer/provider loss is localized once. Negative gains and harms are never overlap-discounted. Payer zero and $500,000 volunteer-inclusive expense are unverified hypotheses. Clinical-null, adverse, strong 988 substitution, unknown, finite duration, incidence and volunteer-cost cases remain testable.

Model, assumptions and sensitivity

Whole recognized annual tax recipient expense versus narrow historical hotline channel; unpaid/partner resources unknown

Local Houston reference with .9 judged MSA share; callers and teens not verified local adult households

Exposed=N*unique; benefit union=exposed*b. Clinical=(clinicalN*unique*b*clinicalResponse*q*discounted finite T − exposed*harm/onset discount)*g. Changed=union*success; one joint household log of overlap-adjusted positive net resources minus full costs; other exposed households retain full negative costs. Payer loss localized once. Current price=10*C/(health+signed income) only when positive. Historical-alpha-central reproduces complete initial health and income.

C
181993 USD annual recognized resources (observed). Recognized annual tax expense plus any identified netted expense addbacks; unrecognized volunteers excluded and unknown [services] [finance]
N
35812 annual reference service opportunities (judgment). Historical FY2022–2023 contact count 35812; distinct adult households and current response judged, not observed [services] [finance]
unique
0.2 households per patient proxy (judgment). Distinct household mapping prior, not clinical efficacy. [services] [finance]
b
0.15 incremental annual response share (judgment). Additional annual implementation versus public/insurance/provider alternatives, not an additional marginal-gift haircut. [services] [finance] [hotline-2007] [asist-2013] [hotline-2025]
q
0.02 QALY per person-year (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance] [hotline-2007] [asist-2013] [hotline-2025]
T
0.02 finite clinical years (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance] [hotline-2007] [asist-2013] [hotline-2025]
g
0.9 Houston MSA share (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
delay
0.01 years (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
discount
0.03 annual discount rate (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
success
0.05 additional resource success share (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
medicalGain
0 USD annual otherwise-paid care avoided (unknown). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
workGain
100 USD annual net disposable work resources (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
transferGain
0 USD one-time net additional household housing resources (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
overlap
0.5 independent positive benefit share (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
cost
2 USD one-off incremental burden per distinct household proxy (judgment). Retained $2 time/access hypothesis beyond alternative counseling, applied to all exposed; per-contact sensitivity $10 per proxy. [services] [finance]
baseline
20000 USD annual household consumption (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
harm
0.00 QALY loss per exposed person (judgment). Full one-off privacy/escalation harm per all exposed proxy, independent of benefit success. [services] [finance]
payerLoss
0 USD loss per resource success (unknown). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
payerPeople
100 distinct payer households (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
payerBaseline
50000 USD annual payer household consumption (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
externalCost
0 USD external loss per exposed household (unknown). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
resourceYears
1 fraction of one-year gains realized (judgment). Explicit finite local hypothesis, not an empirical recipient coefficient. [services] [finance]
clinicalN
35812 reference clinical opportunities within union (judgment). Historical contacts transferred to adult household reference; no observed current unique clinical cohort. [services] [finance]
clinicalResponse
0.3 incremental meaningful clinical response share (judgment). Explicit unsupported local response prior, not calibrated recipient efficacy. [services] [finance] [hotline-2007] [asist-2013] [hotline-2025]

central: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

no exposure: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

no gift no exposure: Cost: $0; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

burden per contact: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.55. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

no incremental time cost: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.06. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

followup 13 5 day duration: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.15; all-population health QALYs: 0.17. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

one day health: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: -0.05; all-population health QALYs: -0.05. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

one month health: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.41; all-population health QALYs: 0.46. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

988 strong substitution: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: -0.04; all-population health QALYs: -0.05. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.31. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

no incremental response: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: -0.06; all-population health QALYs: -0.07. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.32. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

clinical null: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: -0.06; all-population health QALYs: -0.07. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

financial only: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: -0.06; all-population health QALYs: -0.07. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

current cost unknown: Cost: unknown; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

full unknown: Cost: unknown; Houston health QALYs: unknown; all-population health QALYs: unknown. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

zero expansion: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: -0.06; all-population health QALYs: -0.07. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.32. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

true zero: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

adverse: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: -32.40; all-population health QALYs: -35.99. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.06. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

positive net work: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.02. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

no resource success: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.32. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

no gains: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.32. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

negative resource overlap zero: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.69. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

negative resource overlap one: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.57. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

mixed sign: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.50. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

payer loss 300: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.41. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

external provider cost: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -7.16. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

annual full response: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.71; all-population health QALYs: 0.79. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.08. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

half geography: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.15. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

all unique: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.26; all-population health QALYs: 0.29. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.31. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

zero resource duration: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.32. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

two year health: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 11.37; all-population health QALYs: 12.63. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

full volunteer cost hypothesis: Cost: $500K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

weak clinical: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: -0.05; all-population health QALYs: -0.05. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

historical alpha central: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.11; all-population health QALYs: 0.12. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.01. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

full transfer incidence: Cost: $182K; Houston health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.06. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.26. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

Counterfactual: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, other hotlines, 911 when appropriate, community mental health and family support retained

Attribution: Annual incremental recipient response is distinct from cohort deduplication and geographic share; no claim of whole annual portfolio or marginal donation causal effect.

Services and accounting cost source-grounded; N historical contacts, not current unique people. All deduplication, additionality, utility, duration, income response and burden coefficients remain judgments. Primary studies do not identify CIH's causal increment versus 988. Current total nonpositive; omitted portfolio channels and next-gift response unknown.

Sensitivity

  • no exposure: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • no gift no exposure: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • burden per contact: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • no incremental time cost: $1.6M per DALY. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • followup 13 5 day duration: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • one day health: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • one month health: $1.2M per DALY. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • 988 strong substitution: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • no incremental response: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • clinical null: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • financial only: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • current cost unknown: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • full unknown: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • zero expansion: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • true zero: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • adverse: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • positive net work: $6.2M per DALY. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • no resource success: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • no gains: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • negative resource overlap zero: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • negative resource overlap one: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • mixed sign: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • payer loss 300: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • external provider cost: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • annual full response: $231K per DALY. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • half geography: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • all unique: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • zero resource duration: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • two year health: $16K per DALY. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • full volunteer cost hypothesis: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • weak clinical: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.
  • historical alpha central: $1.5M per DALY. Complete original alpha health and income diagnostic, not current central.
  • full transfer incidence: no finite positive estimate. Conditional finite annual channel; full portfolio, current cost and marginal gift unknown.

Unresolved inputs

  • Current unique completed household cohort and dose
  • Causal utility/duration and signed net resources versus alternatives
  • Full public/payer/partner opportunity incidence
  • Marginal donor response and complete portfolio outcomes

Health and income breakdown

For the modeled $182K: 0.05 health QALYs + -0.26 household-resource-equivalent years = -0.21 combined years. A nonpositive total has no positive-benefit price. Income equivalents are welfare comparisons, not observed clinical QALYs or DALYs.

Method and caveats.

5. Funding and previous grants

FY2024 original recognized tax expense $181,993; FY2023 $181,602; FY2022 $226,567, all twelve-month June fiscal years. No populated event, rental or inventory expense addback recovered. Schedule D requests returned HTTP 404 rather than evidence of zero donated services. Unrecognized volunteers and partner care remain unknown. Historical FY2022–2023 contacts paired with FY2024 cost are an explicit mismatch. Whole-recipient cost versus this narrow hotline hypothesis is not a complete portfolio EV or verified marginal offer. No new volunteer-inclusive economic resource total, matched current unique cohort or funded marginal expansion was established. The $500,000 economic-cost sensitivity is not an observed budget.

Annual expenses

Organization-level spending, including programs, administration and fundraising. The research list averages three comparable, consecutive full fiscal years when available.

  • FY 2022: $227K; org:crisis-intervention-of-houston, 12-month period, Recognized annual tax expense plus any identified netted expense addbacks; unrecognized volunteers excluded and unknown. Source
  • FY 2023: $182K; org:crisis-intervention-of-houston, 12-month period, Recognized annual tax expense plus any identified netted expense addbacks; unrecognized volunteers excluded and unknown. Source
  • FY 2024: $182K; org:crisis-intervention-of-houston, 12-month period, Recognized annual tax expense plus any identified netted expense addbacks; unrecognized volunteers excluded and unknown. Source

6. Sources

  1. Current crisis counseling, referrals and volunteer model. Crisis Intervention of Houston. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  2. SAMHSA current 988 support alternative. SAMHSA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  3. Current recipient-owned donation form. Crisis Intervention of Houston. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  4. Original FY2024 Form 990 and historical contact dates. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  5. Original FY2023 Form 990. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  6. Original FY2022 Form 990. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  7. Coefficient Giving income welfare conversion. Coefficient Giving. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  8. Original 2007 caller follow-up study: selection, attrition and no-control limits. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior / Gould et al.. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  9. Original ASIST hotline counselor-training study: abstract reviewed. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior / Gould et al.. Published: 2013-07-25; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  10. Original 2025 caller-perception study: PubMed abstract reviewed. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior / Gould et al.. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.