The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is rolling out text and chat features in Spanish and there will be future efforts to route calls, texts and chats to call centers in the same geographic area as the user.
Thanks to a trio of digits -- 988 -- the past year has been "transformative" in the United States' ongoing efforts to tackle the nation's mental health crisis, according to health officials. But as it heads into its second year of existence, the three-digit number for the country's mental health crisis lifeline, formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, transitioned last year from 1-800-273-TALK to a simpler dial code, 988.
Almost 1 million of the nearly 5 million contacts were linked to the Veterans Crisis Line, which military members, veterans and their families can reach by dialing 988 and pressing option 1. & Behavioral Health Crisis Coordinating office at the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration . The 988 lifeline is supported by HHS through SAMHSA.Yet many people still don't know that the lifeline exists or that 988 call centers face ongoing staffing challenges - and are actively seeking counselors.
As for what else the future holds for 988, the lifeline is rolling out text and chat features in Spanish this week and there will be future efforts to route calls, texts and chats to call centers in the same geographic area as the user, called geo-routing, Johnson said. Getting people connected to local resources can reduce the number of people seeking mental health care in a hospital emergency department, said Dr. Mariam Betz, an emergency medicine physician and professor at the Colorado School of Public Health in Denver, who is not involved in 988.
"What we'd like to do as we continue to evolve is get you closer beyond just the area code," Johnson said. "So we are exploring ways in which we can look at routing opportunities that don't just depend on your area code."
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