Despite patient fears of police interventions and hospitalization when calling a crisis hotline, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline network only needed emergency service interventions for a small portion of all calls, a Vibrant Emotional Health whitepaper found.
More than 200 independently operated local crisis centers joined the 988 network when it launched in 2022. Its crisis counselors provide emotional support through call, text and chat and aim to develop individually tailored safety plans. However, in less than 2% of total calls, invasive approaches such as contacting emergency services were required. The low number of invasive interventions could be due to the variability in how crisis counselors respond to imminent-risk situations or could suggest some scenarios are effectively deescalated without requiring intervention, according to the report.
"These findings highlight the need for more research to better understand how crisis counselors help people in crisis through the 988 Lifeline network and especially during moments when crisis counselors deem the risk of suicide to be high," the report said.
Here are five key 988 statistics from October 2020 through September 2021:
- 38 centers answered 336,894 lifeline calls.
- Of those calls 3.2% (10,665) were callers at imminent risk for suicide.
- Almost 60% of calls did not require rescue and had no imminent suicide risk.
- Of calls that required emergency rescue, 2,705 (0.8%) were voluntary and 2,258 (0.7%) were involuntary.
- Of callers, 13.7% did not need rescue and suicide risk was reduced.