- Posted
- July 19, 2024
National 988 hotline answers 10 million calls, texts, chats in two years since launch
More than 10 million calls, texts and chat messages have been answered by counselors working for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s three-digit hotline in the two years since it debuted, federal officials said this week (Source: “Crisis Hotline Has Answered 10 Million Calls, Texts and Chats,” New York Times, July 16).
The three-digit number, 988, was introduced in 2022 as a way to simplify emergency calls and help a metastasizing mental health crisis in the United States, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the social environments of younger Americans. The hotline previously used a traditional 10-digit number.
The condensed phone number was meant to function as a more memorable option for emergency calls, similar to 911. Yet only around a quarter of Americans are at least somewhat familiar with 988, according to a poll released this week by Ipsos and the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Mental health experts said that 988, which depends on a patchwork of state and federal funds, is still in need of longer-term funding and a larger workforce in a field prone to burnout. In May — the most recent month with federal data — 88% of calls, 83% of chats and 97% of texts were answered, with calls answered more quickly than the other forms of contact.