The national 988 suicide and crisis lifeline is back up and running after a widespread outage at Intrado, the telecommunications company that runs the hotline, according to a Dec. 2 report from ABC News.
Both the suicide and crisis lifeline and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Association's disaster distress helpline were out of commission on Dec. 1, but alternate 988 channels, including text and web chat functions, remained accessible during the outage, according to a tweet from Sarah Lovenheim, HHS' assistant secretary for public affairs, cited by ABC.
"While HHS and VA immediately acted to provide support to 988 callers via text, chat and alternate numbers, the disruption of phone service was unacceptable, and HHS continues to investigate the root cause of the outage," Ms. Lovenheim wrote on Twitter.
Intrado is working to resolve other service disruptions caused by the outage, according to the company's website.