Americans in crisis have a new number to dial for help — 988, a revamped National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that’s being billed as Mental Health’s 911.
Set to go live on Saturday and backed by more than $400 million in federal funding, it aims to stem the rising tide of mental illness in the United States. But there remains concern that under-staffed call centers across the country may not be prepared to face the boom.
In recent months, many people calling the lifeline were disconnected before they could get help. According to a data analysis by The New York Times, of the nearly 1 million phone calls given to Lifeline in the first half of this year, about 18 percent were skipped. An earlier analysis by the Times in March found similar problems, and the transition to a well-publicized three-digit phone number is expected to further reduce capacity.
Javier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, commended the efforts to prepare for 988, acknowledging that extensive work lies ahead. “Once you get it on the ground, there’s someone who answers the phone,” he said in an interview. “Receiving a busy signal or being put on hold is not enough.”
Millions in federal dollars have dealt a major blow to Lifeline over the past half year. Money has helped a chronically low crisis line — long answered by a patchwork of call centers, often nonprofits that juggle multiple hotlines and rely on both paid consultants and volunteers — across the country. In addition to listing the phone banks, more than 200 to bring the total to more than 180.
The funding has also strengthened the Spanish language network; National Backup Center, where counselors can pick up unanswered calls locally; and digital messaging services, which are seen as an important tool to reach young people in need of help.
Lifeline’s texting and chat lines received about 500,000 contacts during the first half of 2022, but only 42 percent of them were answered. Still, data supplied by the organization that manages Lifeline showed steady improvement – the response rate increased to 74 percent in June, and the average wait time dropped from 16 minutes in January to nearly three minutes last month.
There was no significant gain in response rates for phone calls, although a goal of the 988 is to eventually answer 95 percent of them within 20 seconds. Lifeline said that 80 percent of callers who disconnected last year did so within two minutes of the automated greeting, and nearly a quarter of those who tried and got back within 24 hours.
John Draper oversees Lifeline and is an executive at the nonprofit Vibrant Emotional Health, which manages the service for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Mr Draper pointed to a “huge increase” in response to digital messages. He predicts that the new investment will improve phone call answering in the coming months, noting that call centers are already able to keep pace with the steady increase in volumes.
“We want to make sure we are responding to everyone in crisis,” he said.
But less than half of the public health officials responsible for the 988 rollout felt confident that their communities were prepared, according to a recent RAND Corporation survey.
Lifeline’s overhaul isn’t just limited to calls, texts and chats. While data shows that hotlines can solve about 80 percent of crises without intervention, the vision for 988 is that counselors will eventually be able to connect callers with mobile crisis teams that are wherever they are. There can also be short-term mental health issues as well. Triage Center.
Advocates say those changes are expected to reduce reliance on law enforcement intervention and emergency rooms, ultimately keeping more people alive.
The new lifeline comes at a time of increasing mental illness, including what the US Surgeon General has called a “devastating” crisis among young people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide was the 12th leading cause of death for Americans of all ages in 2020, and the second leading cause of death among those aged 10 to 14 and 25 to 34. One person died by suicide every 11 minutes. in 2020. Many believe the pandemic has exacerbated mental health issues, and the revised hotline aims to expand beyond the realm of suicide to help anyone in distress.
Despite the projected increase in volumes, questions remain about long-term sustainable funding for the 988. This is partly because in October 2020 President Donald J. The law, signed by Trump with bipartisan support, left the funding of call centers largely to the states. ,
While this gave states the option to raise funds for 988s the same way they do for 911s, with monthly fees on phone bills, only four states have authorized phone-bill charges. Many other states have used grants or common money to prepare for new lifelines, or have enacted other laws.
“I think 988 represents the best and worst of how America approaches mental health,” said Benjamin F. Miller, a psychologist and president of the Well Being Trust, a mental health foundation. “At its best, it’s ingenuity, creativity, status. At worst, it’s a lack of resources, a lack of leadership, and a lack of follow-through.
Dr Miller worries about whether the funding will be sustained, he said, because mental health in the country has always been “an afterthought”.
“It’s the marginalized aspect of our health care that we strongly avoid investing in,” he said.
Jennifer Piver, executive director of Mental Health America of Greenville County, the only 988 call center in South Carolina, said federal funding had allowed her to fill eight new positions. But he feared it would be insufficient in the long run, and said his team was seeking grants and raising funds through a GoFundMe page.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine on Saturday,” Ms Piver said. “But as the word gets out, you know, coping with that growth is not something that we prepare for financially in terms of employees.” The Center answers over 80 per cent of the calls in the state, but if the funding remains the same, it said, “We can see that when you change some systems we will get 50, 40, even Can dip up to 30 percent very quickly.”
National labor shortages have also affected the ability to hire and retain employees. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s website has a long page that lists job opportunities nationwide.
The workforce was an issue for the mental health sector “long before the pandemic,” said Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, who noted that burnout was also a concern for professionals already in this space. .
While a lot of work has been completed since 988 was signed into law, Ms Wesolowski said, “we’re trying to build a comprehensive system, and it’s going to take more than two years.”
Representative Tony Cardenas, a Democrat from California and a main congressional proponent of 988, said that 911, which was instituted 50 years earlier, “didn’t start without a hiccup.”
Despite the uncertainties, advocates expect 988 to live up to its promises.
“People’s lives are on the line, so we have to get there,” said Preston Mitchum, advocacy director for The Trevor Project, a crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth.
“we will get there.”
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)