Dial 988: Help waits on suicide prevention lifeline

Photo by Barry Weatherall on Unsplash

Missouri is joining states that make critical calls to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline as easy as 9-8-8.

Beginning July 16, anyone who is in mental distress, or knows someone in distress, can dial the three-digit code and get on the line with a suicide prevention specialist, in multiple languages.

An increasing number of people in Missouri are dealing with mental-health-related stress, substance abuse issues and other emotional distress. The Centers for Disease Control reports:

• Suicide is among the top three leading causes of death in Missouri for ages 10-34.

• Approximately one in five Missourians above the age of 18 has a mental health condition.

• Approximately 377,000 of Missourians age 12 and older (or 7.4%) live with a substance use disorder.

• Prior to the pandemic in 2019, 8.5% of adults in Missouri reported an unmet need for mental health treatment in the past year.

The desire is to give people a number to call or share during a crisis that is easy to remember like 911.

There are seven crisis centers in Missouri responsible for answering 988 contacts for the state. The trained crisis specialists at each center will listen, work to understand how the individual’s problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources. Crisis specialists will also have the ability to dispatch mobile crisis response teams for additional crisis response wherever the crisis is occurring in the community and based on the needs of the person.

Schools will be required to print 988 on student identification cards by the 2023-2024 school year.