WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) -- Damian Birkel works with people who often are struggling. The non-profit he began, decades ago is called Professionals in Transition. It helps people who have lost their jobs to find new employment. It often helps people who are a bit older than average and have a hard time dealing with the technological changes of the modern workplace. “The people that I get concerned about the most are the people that disappear,” Birkel said. Some people find their way through it all without too much difficulty. For others, it’s just too much. “I know people who have given up,” Birkel said. He’s seen that up close and personal more so than he would have liked. “One night about 9 p.m., I got a call. The person who I did not know ... had been drinking heavily. He said to me ... 'I have a gun in my mouth. You’re my last call. Why should I go on living? I’ve been looking for a job ... I’m almost out of money. I don’t know what to do,'” Birkel said. “He didn’t commit suicide. He did go on to found his own company ... extremely successful. But ... you could literally hear (the gun) in his mouth when he was talking. I don’t know what I said. I don’t know how I said it, but he didn’t do it, and he was on the verge.” See more about the challenge of being out of work in a tough economy in this edition of The Buckley Report.