TAMPA, Fla. — The National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 988, launched as a three-digit hotline across the country almost one year ago. Data shows many states are falling behind in answering calls, with about 25% going unanswered in Florida in recent months.
In total, the lifeline has made about 4 million contacts with people in crisis via phone, text, and online chats, according to a spokesperson with the Substance Abuse And Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the government agency that launched the lifeline in July 2022.
Crisis centers said it’s had a lot more traction than the previous 10-digit suicide hotline.
“It quadrupled that very first day. It continued at that high level for quite a while. It is still definitely doubled or tripled what we had seen previous to 988,” said Clara Reynold, President and CEO of the Crisis Center Tampa Bay.
But data compiled by the Vibrant Emotional Health showed many states have an answer rate below the required 90%.
In the fall of 2022, Florida centers overall averaged an answer rate just above 50%.
Reynolds explained that funding from the federal government was slow to get to agencies.
“It took a while for funding to be able to follow down, so we really didn't get the funding to be able to increase our staff until October. So we were on a little bit of a shoestring,” she explained. “We also had to do some things different internally because, again, we're a part of the whole national issue around worker shortage.”
The Crisis Center Of Tampa Bay added help to their call center through internships with local universities. They’re now one of the leading call centers for the hotline in the state.
“We're answering the fourth most 988 calls in the state. And of those, we have a call answer rate between 80 and 90%, which, again, is one of the top in the state. We've answered over 8,800 calls to the crisis lines since July 16 of 2022," Reynolds said. "We're really proud of those numbers, but we understand we need to be at 100%."
However, nearly 9,000 calls is less than half of what Tampa Bay 211 has answered.
Spokesperson Kimberly Curnan said they’ve received nearly 25,000 calls, and their answer rate averages 46%. She explained, “For the past several months, we've had the highest volume in the state, and we anticipate the trend will continue that way.”
One of the biggest issues is that 988 is not set up with geolocation, so it’s based on the caller’s area code and the first three digits of their phone number.
“This means when someone moves to another state/county but keeps their original phone number, they will be sent to a center assigned to their phone number, not where they currently reside,” Curnan said.
A few other points Curnan mentioned when asked about any changes implemented to be more effective:
“In the beginning of this project, we mixed 988 calls with local mental health referral calls that came into 211. After much discussion with our leadership and the leadership at Vibrant Emotional Health, we realized co-mingling the 211 and 988 calls impacted our ability to get to the 988 calls quickly. We decided to make the change to separate the calls and implemented that change May 1, 2023. In one month, we were able to increase our answer rate from 43% to 53%. So now, our 211 staff provide the local mental health referrals, while our 988 Counselors are providing immediate suicide intervention, crisis de-escalation, and emotional support.”
“With the implementation of any 3-digit dialing code, there are going to be issues that arise with phone numbers, phone service, etc. One of the issues we discovered was that there was a local fax number at a hospital that was calling our center up to 65 times per day. The fax machine was programmed to dial a number beginning with "988," and it was reaching us, driving up our call volume and abandonment rates. One of our supervisors worked with the hospital's IT team to fix the issue, but I'm sure there are more challenges like this all across the country.”
Overall, no call truly goes unanswered, according to SAMHSA. If a caller waits long enough, they’re routed to the national backup network funded by SAMHSA.
A SAMHSA spokesperson said in a statement:
“Significantly more people are reaching out for help, and they are getting a response much faster than ever before through a trained crisis counselor to get the help that they need in a time of crisis.”
They added that a “significant improvement in how quickly contacts were answered – from 2 minutes and 55 seconds to 37 seconds.”
Anyone who needs help should call 988 or reach out to local services even sooner.
In Florida, the Department of Families and Children oversees the 988 hotline, according to ABC. We reached out to ask about the unanswered call rate and the need for additional funding. A spokesperson said they are processing our request.
The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay also commented that even though they are staffed, sometimes staff need to take a break themselves.
“Self Care is an absolute requirement in taking these calls. These calls are very, very difficult. So we want to make sure that all of our staff are supported, that they have ways of taking care of themselves, and that when they need that help and support, when they need to get off the line and take a breath, they not only have a space that they can go do that, but they also have supervisors and other supports available to support them to get them back to a place where they can then answer those calls,” Reynolds explained.
The Crisis Center is currently looking to add four trained staff members to their 988 call center staff and 211 Tampa Bay is currently looking to fill 3 open counselor positions for the line.
In May of 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration announced additional funding for the 988 initiative.
A release states: "The Biden-Harris Administration has made an unprecedented investment of nearly $1 billion to support the 988 Lifeline, including an initial $432 million to support the transition to 988 in July 2022, to build up crisis center capacity and to provide special services, including a sub-network for Spanish speakers. Additional funding for the 988 Lifeline has been provided by the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and the federal FY 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act. Prior to this investment, the Lifeline, which existed since 2005 as a 1-800 number, had been long underfunded and under-resourced."
Full statement from SAMHSA:
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funds a national backup network that ensures all calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline are able to be answered, regardless of a state’s local capacity, as long as the caller stays on the line. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
Nearly a year ago, SAMHSA transitioned to the 988 Lifeline – a three-digit number to reach the previously known National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. That Lifeline, which has existed since 2005, had been long underfunded and under-resourced. Significant investments from the federal government -- nearly $1 billion in recent years -- helped prepare for the transition to 988, with much of that investment going directly to states to hire crisis counselors and build local capacity.
Now, significantly more people are reaching out for help, and they are getting a response much faster than ever before through a trained crisis counselor, to get the help that they need in a time of crisis. Since the transition last July, the 988 Lifeline has seen about 4 million contacts through calls, chats, and texts -- an average of about 350,000 contacts per month. During that same timeframe, there was a significant improvement in how quickly contacts were answered – from 2 minutes and 55 seconds to 37 seconds.
