That might mean fielding calls made to the hotline, linking homeless Veterans with housing, answering texts from Veterans in need, or chatting online with Veterans in crisis.
There was a hotline linking Seoul and Pyongyang, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Un severed the channel in 2013 and refused to restore it, said Gary Samore, a former senior White House adviser now with Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
For instance, it tracked complaints from 311 calls, a municipal hotline, and linked them with information about such things as tax irregularities to pinpoint illegal building conversions, which are fire hazards, quickly and fairly accurately.
Social networking sites played a major role in the tragedy, linking members up with information, hotline numbers and the latest news stories.
Unlike other hotlines, phone counselors can link directly to the VA's computerized medical records to ensure that patients get prompt follow-up care at their local center, says Janet Kemp, who directs the VA effort.
Other findings from the report confirm that a significant number of incidents reported to the hotline involved a link to far-right groups such as the English Defence League.
It takes on suicide hotlines, the Psychic Friends Network, phone-sex lines, and people who telephonically pray for you, all linked together by the theme of the need humans have to connect with one another.
In apparent response to the UN sanctions vote, however, North Korea has issued multiple threats, promising to abandon the Korean War armistice, pull out of non-aggression pacts with North Korea and cut cross-border links, including the hotline.
The app includes a quiz, facts about FGM and its health impacts, and links to a hotline and other social services in the UK.
Better use of outreach workers since 2010 and the promotion of Street Link, a rough-sleeping hotline, means more are found.
27 March: North Korea cuts a key military hotline with South Korea, the last official direct link between the two.
