New Suicide Prevention Number Could Lead to Surge in Calls
Stateline.orgDec 20, 2019
It was a collect call to his father from a pay phone in
Anderson made the call in 1984, when he was 19, after he'd taken fistfuls of drugs to end his pain, he said. He made another attempt to end his life seven years later, before mental health treatment helped him recover.
Now, he talks to people who may be having some of the same thoughts and feelings he had back then. He said he assures them that there are ways to turn their lives around. He's done it. "I give them hope," Anderson said.
Suicide rates in
In response,
Last week, the FCC unanimously approved a proposal to set aside 9-8-8 as the replacement for the existing national suicide hotline number: 800-273-8255. The new number isn't expected to go live for a year or more.
"The problem we've always had is getting more people to find us," said FCC Chairman
Call Surges
The easy-to-remember number is projected to generate a substantial increase in the number of callers, which suicide prevention experts roundly support.
But the network of local call centers that respond to distraught and suicidal callers is woefully underfunded, said
When you call the National Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255, your call is routed to a local call center closest to the area code you call from. If your community doesn't have a call center or they don't answer quickly enough, your call rolls over to one of six national call centers that act as a backup.
Last year, 2.2 million people called the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number, up from 46,000 in 2005. Another roughly 14 million calls come through local crisis lines like
With few exceptions, local call centers are funded by a patchwork of inconsistent state, local and private funding that has failed to increase to meet rising demand, Draper said.
Since 2006, the state has set the standard for comprehensive suicide prevention care -- from its centralized statewide 24/7 crisis line with a
As a result, the volume of calls that rolls over to national centers is rising. That's less than ideal, since call centers are far more effective when the professionals who answer the calls are familiar with local mental health resources, which enables them to set up appointments, locate available psychiatric beds and, when needed, send a mobile crisis unit directly to the caller.
When calls come through
The system also allows crisis line operators to access the callers' medical records, so they can suggest clinicians, doctors and medical facilities they may have been to before.
Hotline History
The first local suicide prevention call line was established in 1958 in
After that, local hotlines began to proliferate around the country. In
Hurricane Katrina was the impetus, said
Then in 2010,
Funding for
But while
Now some states are starting to reinvest in hotlines and other community services, because of the rise in suicide rates, he said.
In 2017, more than 47,000 people in
The same year, 1.4 million adults attempted suicide, an increase of 33% since 1999, and 10.6 million adults reported seriously considering suicide, according to the
"When you have something like 9-8-8, it can be a game changer in erasing or at least reducing the stigma against mental illness in this country," Draper said. "Right now, a mental health emergency is responded to with police and ambulances. The moment people start to understand that for most people, that is not the right response, will be the moment that proper suicide prevention care will be validated."
In October, the nonprofit that runs the lifeline awarded grants to 12 states --
Saving Lives
At
Contrary to popular belief, call volume drops during the holidays, he said, because more people are connected to their friends and family and churches. It's in January, after the holidays are over and some people experience an emotional letdown, when calls start to surge.
But calls during the holiday season do tend to be more urgent, he said.
Lisenbee described a call on Sunday from a man who said he was alone and struggling with suicidal thoughts. The clinician on the phone with him decided the situation was serious enough to dispatch a mobile mental health team. The caller gave her his location and she asked him to stay there until the team arrived.
He called back 15 minutes later, and the same clinician got back on the phone, Lisenbee said. The first thing the caller said was, "I don't think I'm going to make it." He told her he was on a bridge over the metro tracks and planned to jump. But this time, he wouldn't give her his location.
She heard a bystander talking to him in the background and asked the caller to hand the phone to him. He did, and the bystander gave her the location. She called 9-1-1 and the police rescued him.
"That was a win," Lisenbee said.
But most calls don't involve a mobile dispatch or the police. For most callers, a phone conversation with a trained suicide prevention professional rapidly de-escalates their emotional crisis.
The professionals who answer calls at the
Looking back on the call to his father in
"He asked me where I was, and I looked up at the street sign next to me and told him." Then, Anderson said, his father kept him on the line, praying for him, until two of his stepsisters showed up.
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