More Hoosiers and Americans are in need of mental health services after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and its multiple effects.
A new nationwide 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline went live on Saturday and is intended to provide a first layer of help to those in need. The three-digit dialing code will connect callers to the hotline, formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The new three-digit process adds speed and simplicity, much like the 911 emergency hotlines. It puts a caller in touch with a trained crisis specialist.
Certainly, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline should become as well recognized as 911 to the general public.
Its necessity is great. Mental health issues have grown through the isolation and uncertainty of the pandemic.
“One serious, lingering result of the COVID-19 pandemic that has been widely recognized by experts all over the country is a worsening of our mental health crisis,” Dr. Dan Ursyniak, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration secretary, said in a statement last week.
The Indiana FSSA will use federal funds, including those from the American Rescue Plan Act, to support the 988 system needs here, according to the agency’s website.
In last Thursday’s announcement concerning new funding for mental health services in the state, the Indiana FSSA issued a reminder that the new national hotline number was about to take effect. The 988 hotline, according to its website, “provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States.”
The 988 hotline involves a network of more than 200 local crisis call centers. Indiana has three, in Gary, Muncie and Lafayette, WFYI reported last month.
The Indiana FSSA said Thursday that the 988 services will grow, long-term. “In the coming years, that service will be expanded to include a response team and locations where people can go for help,” the agency statement said. “The work to develop this complete system is well underway and will continue over the next seven to 10 years.”
Meanwhile, the free national 988 crisis hotline is underway. People experiencing any type of mental health crisis will be able to reach a compassionate specialist for support. Also, people can call 988 to help a loved one in the midst of a mental health or substance use crisis.
Help is as close as punching three numerals into a phone. Share the 988 number with family and friends. It could save a life.
