SAN ANTONIO – 988 is a call that thousands of people make each year in the state of Texas when they’re experiencing a mental health crisis.
“It’s very hard,” Doug Beach, the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Greater San Antonio, said. “It’s hard for people to make that call.”
This summer marked two years since the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was shortened from a 1-800 number to just three numbers. Since then, call centers nationwide have received more than 10 million calls, texts or chats. But new data shows some of those calls go unanswered in the state of Texas.
“When people do call, they don’t always get help,” Beach said.
This past July, data from the 988 Lifeline’s online database show Texas’ answer rate as 81%. In other words, two of every ten calls, texts or chats went unanswered. More than 21,000 people in the state tried to contact the crisis lifeline that month.
Jelynne LeBlanc Jamison, the CEO of the Center for Health Care Services, said the lifeline isn’t perfect, but it’s helping more people than it did last year.
“We have more work to do, but the answer rate is improving,”
So, where do Bexar County 988 calls go? LeBlanc Jamison said our community’s calls get routed to Travis County. That’s because the state only has four call centers. She said services are still being reached.
“There’s on-demand services and people’s needs are getting that,” LeBlanc Jamison said.
But Beach said he worries that such a distance can cause a disconnect.
“They don’t know the community,” Beach said.
He said change needs to come out of the state legislature.
“The legislature has not funded expansion of the 988 system in Texas,” Beach said. “There’s not been an emphasis on getting people to call it because we don’t even have the infrastructure really to adequately support it in the state.”
LeBlanc Jamison said as San Antonio’s population soars, solutions need to come soon.
“The needs are growing, access to care is growing, but the resources are not growing,” LeBlanc Jamison said.
Beach said NAMI created a breakdown of all numbers to call for mental health needs in Bexar County. It’s briefly listed below:
- 911
- Non-Emergency City of San Antonio (210) 207-7273
- 988
- CHCS (210)223-7233 or 1(800) 316-9241
- Bexar County Sheriff’s Office (210) 335-6000
