Tuesday, 988 is observing its one-year anniversary — and reports show a lot more people dialed America’s new three-digit suicide prevention lifeline in its first year of operation than the old 10-digit phone number.
988’s objective is to route mental health cases to trained counselors, says Valerie Mielke, assistant commissioner of New Jersey Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services. “You know, with the pandemic, some individuals were experiencing a crisis, as relates to their own behavioral health and wellness,” she said. “So we’re really happy to see there’s been an increase — and that individuals are calling in to get that support.
Outreach to the state’s five lifeline centers is anonymous. Surveys show 988 calls climbed 20% in New Jersey to just over 57,000 — and rose 66% nationwide. That’s some 5 million U.S. calls for help in a single year.
But the system is still relatively unknown, according to a recent survey by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “We found that not a lot of people know about 988. Only about 17 percent of Americans are familiar with it,” said NAMI’s Hannah Wesolowski. “And more than two in five Americans said — if they had a loved one in a mental health crisis — or having thoughts of suicide — they wouldn’t know what to do to help them. That’s exactly what 988 is intended to help with.”
Wesolowski also said people over the age of 50 and communities of color are least familiar with 988. And callers still experience confusion — with many expecting a 911 type of response — and that may prevent some from reaching out. “Fear — maybe immigration services, if someone has a history of incarceration and they’re afraid to call for support, because they’re not sure if that would come back to them,” says Lisa Merritt of Catholic Charities in Trenton. “Sometimes it could be related to domestic violence issues.”
