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Key TakeawaysThe new mental health hotline—988—goes live July 16.Despite having two years to prepare, leaders and lawmakers are being criticized for a disorganized rollout.The new hotline has great potential to save lives and move away from police response to mental health crises, but resources are stretched thin.

Key Takeaways

The new mental health hotline—988—goes live July 16.Despite having two years to prepare, leaders and lawmakers are being criticized for a disorganized rollout.The new hotline has great potential to save lives and move away from police response to mental health crises, but resources are stretched thin.

This number, which goes live on July 16, will replace the current National Suicide Prevention Lifeline,1-800-273-8255 (TALK). Since its founding, the Lifeline has received over 23 million calls from people in distress and has provided local, customized support.

Historically, less than 2% of Lifeline calls involve emergency services, and many callers that were experiencing suicidal ideations report that the call prevented them from killing themselves.

But with a new number that’s easier to remember, call volumes are expected to surge, and some experts are worried that the system is far from prepared.

New Law Establishes 988 As National Suicide Hotline

Disjointed and Disorganized Rollout

In moments ofdistressor concern, someone can call or text 988 and be connected to mental health,suicide prevention, andsubstance use disordercounselors. Implementing this new number is part of a larger push to make mental health and substance use disorder services easier to access.

In an ideal scenario, when a caller dials 988, they will be connected to a trained crisis counselor who will listen empathetically and ask the right questions to get all the information necessary to provide support.

While most crises can be de-escalated over the phone, some callers will need physical intervention, and in those cases, the operator will dispatch a mobile crisis team to the caller’s location.

While the idea is flawless in theory, mental health advocates have raised concerns about a “disjointed and disorganized rollout” of the new number.

Benjamin Miller, PsyDThe promise of 988 is that you would be met with a health care response and not a law enforcement response. This will be our reality, it just may take a bit more time to get right.

Benjamin Miller, PsyD

The promise of 988 is that you would be met with a health care response and not a law enforcement response. This will be our reality, it just may take a bit more time to get right.

Clinical psychologistDr. Benjamin Miller, PsyD, notes that leaders and lawmakers were given two years to draft, propose, pass, and implement legislation to ensure the success of 988 on its first day live.

“And yet, just weeks before 988 was scheduled to roll out, we still had half the states in the country with no comprehensive legislation on how to fund and staff 988 call centers and responders in their states, as well as a supermajority of citizens who have little to no idea what 988 is or what to expect if they need to contact it,” Miller says.

I Need Help: What to Do If You Feel This Way

Call-In Concerns

One of Miller’s biggest concerns is wait times. Calls are fielded through state crisis centers, which are critically underfunded and, consequently, understaffed.

Without proper funding and staffing, higher call volumes could leave callers in distress during crucial moments.

“Most callers should still be able to get through to a counselor but may experience significant wait times in a queue before their call is answered,” Miller says. “That is at least until our lines are fully staffed and financially supported.”

This new number is also an attempt at moving away from relying onpoliceto solve mental health issues, which can be dangerous or even deadly for certain groups, such as people withautism,Black people, ortransgender people.

Benjamin Miller, PsyDMost callers should still be able to get through to a counselor but may experience significant wait times in a queue before their call is answered.

Most callers should still be able to get through to a counselor but may experience significant wait times in a queue before their call is answered.

“The promise of 988 is that you would be met with a health care response and not a law enforcement response. This will be our reality, it just may take a bit more time to get right,” Miller says.

Joining a Chat Room to Help With Depression

Hope Ahead

When an in-state crisis center is unable to address high call volumes, calls are transferred to national back-up crisis centers. While this can still be helpful to the caller, it becomes less efficient in connecting the caller with localized support.

To address this, in 2019Vibrant Emotional Health, the nonprofit administrator of Lifeline, awarded millions of dollars in grants to 12 states to help bolster their crisis centers that field Lifeline calls.

“Building capacity within local and state-affiliated crisis centers that are part of the Lifeline network is a key strategy for strengthening our national mental health safety net and saving lives,” said Kimberly Williams, president and CEO of Vibrant Emotional Health, in a release.

Action like this, in the form of legislation and government funds, will be necessary to ensure the eventual success of this new mental health hotline.

Despite the massive undertaking of implementing the hotline and getting the public up to speed, Miller remains optimistic about its potential to save lives and fundamentally change the way we think and talk about our mental health needs.

He hopes that one day, it will be as widely known as dialing 911 in an emergency.

“I think that, eventually, we can reach the same place, where someone can witness a person in a mental health crisis and say, ‘Call 988,’ and that person can quickly get the mental health help or support they need,” he says.

What This Means For You

The Trevor Project Hotline: 1-866-488-7386

The National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-SAFE (7233)

The National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

The Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860

For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.

Experts Fear Ongoing Mental Health Crisis If COVID-19 Keeps Us Home This Winter

5 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Facts About Suicide.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.988 frequently asked questions.

Tint A, Palucka AM, Bradley E, Weiss JA, Lunsky Y.Correlates of police involvement among adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder.J Autism Dev Disord. 2017;47(9):2639-2647. doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3182-5

Vibrant Emotional Health.Capacity grants 2019 press release.

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