Objective To analyze the temporal distribution characteristics of crisis calls and eight major counseling issues to the Shanghai mental health hotline, and to provide recommendations for improving hotline management.

Methods Descriptive statistics were used to analyze 1 106 crisis calls and the calls of eight major counseling issues to the Shanghai mental health hotline across months, time periods and weeks from October 2021 to September 2023, and the chi-square test was used to analyze whether there was any difference in the distribution of 1 106 crisis calls and the calls of eight major counseling issues across months, time periods and weeks.

Results There were significant differences in the number of crises calls across different months (χ²=87.816, P<0.05), time periods (χ²=161.848, P<0.05), and weekly distributions (χ²=63.329, P<0.05). The highest number of calls occurred in September, while January had the lowest. The peak call times were between 18:00‒20:00, with the fewest calls occurring between 3:00‒5:00. The day of the week with the highest number of calls was Saturday, while Wednesday had the lowest. Among the different types of counselling issues in crisis calls, the highest number of calls were related to mental disorders, while the fewest calls were related to COVID-19.

Conclusion Crisis calls to the Shanghai mental health hotline are concentrated at specific times, indicating that relevant organizations should optimize resource allocation based on this time distribution.