Rural Americans, who die by suicide at a far higher rate than residents of urban areas, often have trouble accessing mental health services. While 988 can connect them to a call center close to home, they could end up being directed to far-away resources.
But as 988 launched, most states had not passed legislation to fill gaps in mental health care.
“Some of our communities have virtual mobile crisis teams,” said Janet Kittams, CEO of Helpline Center, the South Dakota nonprofit that will answer the state’s 988 calls. “Some of our communities have co-responder models. Some of our communities will do direct response with law enforcement. So it really does vary quite a bit across the state.”
Vibrant has said that 988 will reach at least an additional 2 million people nationwide in its first year. Half of them are expected to come through the diversion of mental health-related calls from 911 and other crisis centers to 988. “We still have a long way to go with properly training all first responders, especially law enforcement, because law enforcement are trained to come to a scene and take control of the scene,” she said. “People who are in a behavioral health crisis, who are perhaps psychotic, sometimes they’re hearing voices, they’re hallucinating, they’re in an altered state. They are not prone to obeying commands. That’s where things often go sideways.
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