The new 988 Mental Health Hotline is now live.
Mental health crisis is one of most severe effects of Pandemic. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, second leading cause of death of people ages between 10 and 34 are “suicide”.
To help address the mental health, the Congress passed the National Suicide Designation Act in 2020. It is called “The 988 Lifeline”. It is a new national suicide and crisis hotline and its available 24/7. The call routes people to the closest crisis center counselor based on the area code of the phone that is being used. Counselors may ask callers for their location in an emergency or to provide referrals for callers to receive local help.
The 988 hotline is being administered by the not-for-profit Vibrant Emotional Health, which is working with a network of local and independent crisis centers. Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services counselors will handle 988 calls for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura County.
People who call for support or help are not required to provide any personal information to receive services. While some calls may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance and for training purposes, the program administrator will not sell the data.
Trained crisis counselors will be answering all the calls. They will listen to the caller to get a better understanding of how their problem is affecting them, provides support, and connects them with resources as necessary. If a local counselor is not available, the person calling will be routed to a national backup crisis center.
The main goal of 988 hotline is to link callers to community-based providers who can deliver a range of crisis care services, including mobile crisis teams and recovery centers.
Chat option is available on the lifeline website. They will be provided a pre-chat survey before being connected with a counselor who can identify the main area of concern.
Learn more about 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
