WASHINGTON—With some help from Dr. Phil and the Internet, a federally funded suicide-prevention hotline is gaining more awareness, having received two million calls since its inception in 2005.

Studies paint a disheartening picture of a national suicide rate that rises in times of economic distress, when more people grapple with job loss, foreclosures and debt.

But a notice the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released Thursday highlights the positive: More people are becoming aware of its National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a free, 24-hour hotline that provides access to trained counselors.

While the economy has brightened a bit compared to the dark days of financial-market chaos in 2008, the number of callers to the network of 147 call centers has yet to let up. In fact, numbers are rising significantly. The year-over-year increase in suicide-prevention hotline calls increased by almost 15% between 2008 and 2009.

Overall, the call centers receive more than 1,800 calls a day or 54,000 calls a month.

According to SAMHSA—a unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—suicides account for 34,598 deaths per year in the U.S. That's almost twice the number of homicides.

The hotline (1-800-273-TALK) is administered by Link2Health Solutions, which has taken several steps to boost awareness. Last year, the TV-show host known as "Dr. Phil" and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline entered a partnership to help prevent suicide during the economic crisis.

Additionally, administrators of the program have worked to boost the presence of the "lifeline" on the Internet. For instance, Google now posts the toll-free phone number for the hotline at the top of the page when users type in "suicide" or "kill myself." Also, News Corp.'s MySpace, Facebook and Google's YouTube provide information about the national hotline.

Administrators have also created a separate program to provide veterans with specialized crisis counseling.

"Relatively few people realize how pervasive suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts are in our society—SAMHSA studies show that 8.3 million American adults seriously contemplated suicide in the past year, with 1.1 million adults actually attempting it," said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde, J.D. "Fortunately the Lifeline has made a remarkable difference in saving the lives of countless Americans."

Write to Maya Jackson Randall at Maya.Jackson-Randall@dowjones.com