SAN ANTONIO – This week marks two years since the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was dropped from a 1-800 phone number to the three-digit emergency number 988. Anyone can call, text, chat, or video call to get to a crisis counselor.
Since shortening that number, call centers nationwide have been contacted 10 million times.
“No shame. I’m not shy about it. I called 988 when I had a crisis moment, and I was grateful that there was that resource available for me at that moment,” said Frances Arias.
Arias has used the line, but she’s also a board member of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention (AFSP) South Texas Chapter.
She knows during a crisis, seconds are precious.
“When you’re experiencing a medical crisis, you will dial 911. But if you’re experiencing a mental health crisis, then dialing 988 should just come quickly and easily to mine to make that call,” she said.
Arias is proud of the huge strides made since the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was launched two years ago.
“From whatever culture or language that they’re speaking, that they have access to that resource,” Arias said.
The following numbers are beyond encouraging for advocates:
- In the last year, there were 90,000 calls in Spanish and 20,000 texts or chats in Spanish.
- In two years, 20,000 American Sign Language users have used the ASL video-phone option.
- In the last year, nearly 500,000 LGBTQ+ youth have contacted 988
- The Veterans Crisis Line, available through a ‘Press 1′ option, has answered more than 1.6 million calls
Those lives saved are something to celebrate.
However, with higher call volume comes the need for a lot more money and help.
“We’re asking for Congress to approve a funding package that will put funding in the hands and responsibility of SAMHSA, who handles the 988 crisis line. For communities, neighborhoods, cities and counties to be able to access that grant funding so that they can either expand or build and develop additional centers across the country,” Arias said.
Expansion is key since Arias agreed there are still not enough centers.
“It’s not just that we don’t have enough crisis call centers. We don’t have enough workforce available,” she said.
They need more crisis counselors to join the teams, answer calls, and direct people to resources.
Advocates like Arias are constantly asking Congress for help as they see new gaps and issues arise.
One issue Arias wants to be fixed is how the person calling is routed to a professional.
“That phone number gets routed to that individual’s area code. So if I have if my personal number is, let’s say, a Wyoming area code, then my call would get transferred to Wyoming and not here to San Antonio, where I’m currently having the existing crisis,” she said.
They’re asking to change that.
“We are trying to get Congress to focus on when the call gets routed, have the call geo route to the near cell phone tower where that individual is calling from,” Arias said.
She explained it’s not geo-locating straight to the exact location. For privacy reasons, they would only ask the calls to ping the closest cell phone tower.
They also want to see more awareness, specifically on places like college campuses.
“Currently, there are 16 states, Texas is one of them, that does already require that on the college campus IDs, the back of it it shows the crisis number,” Arias said.
She said that the law should be federal.
Each state deals with these centers and their funding differently. Arias wants Texas to consider something other states are doing.
“There are fees that you pay for your cell phone. One of those fees is to ensure that 911 is available. So we would ask for the same to be applied for 988. There would be a fee applied to your cell phone bill, something small, but it would generate plenty of money to be able to support these resources and get into your neighborhoods,” Arias said.
She knows firsthand how crucial this access is and hopes people will see her story and decide to call, too.
“If you find yourself in a moment that you’re in crisis, please call 988. There are people, there are organizations there that are ready and waiting,” she said.