988 crisis line overwhelmed nationwide, different story in El Paso
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- With an estimated 1 in 5 adults living with a mental illness, access to support is a key factor in treatment.
One of the most immediate forms of help is 988, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
People considering suicide or going through mental stress or crisis can reach out by phone, text, or chats online.
In July 2022, the hotline switched to a shorter number. Since switching to the three-digit call line, contact has gone up by 45%, according to officials. Some call centers across the country are facing an intense uptick in demand for service.
Looking at last month, nationwide, the call volume was up from 2022's numbers.
Over 402,000 contacts were made to the Lifeline-- meaning texts, chats and calls.
A vast majority were routed to help. But, more than 29,000 contacts were abandoned.
That can mean the caller hung up, never responded, felt unable to speak, or a call dropped.
In El Paso, Emergence Health tells ABC-7 that it's a different story. Here locally, the EHN Crisis Line (779-1800) has existed for some time. Because there were already trained professionals working and actively supporting people in crisis, some growing pains for mental health support lines were not as impactful.
EHN didn't see a breakdown in service here, even during the upstart of 988 nationally. While some other states and communities may have faced challenges in building up a mental support crisis line. For El Paso, the pieces were already in place.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has been reviewing 988 answer rates for every state.
Their data for December 2022 shows Texas only had an answer rate of 67%. One of seven states with less than a 70% answer rate. It's a different story in El Paso, a spokesperson from the Emergence Health Network tells ABC-7 the call center has been continually going strong and providing service.
Over 2.3 million calls came into 988 nationwide in 2020 alone. Over 180,000 calls came from Texas. About 43,000 were transferred to Veteran Crisis lines. Just under 5,000 needed Spanish language services.
It's important to note that crisis centers forward calls to other centers due to high volume, funding, and staffing levels -- or language needs. As a result, a caller in Washington may end up talking to someone in Colorado -- but the key is connecting them to help.
KFF says the answer rate for states varies quite a bit. Only seven states had a rate of 90% or above.
The number of Texans contacting 988 went up almost 90% between 2016 and 2020.
The Foundation has expressed concern that sending callers to out of state centers could cause problems. If they do not know local resources to get the caller to -- the support aspect may not be successful.
The Foundation believes that improvements to the program could come from more funding and more centers.
Overall, the Kaiser Family Foundation believes the crisis line is keeping up with demand in some aspects nationally. However, at the state level, it's unclear.
Avery Martinez is the Be Mindful Reporter for ABC-7, supported in part by Report for America. RFA helps provide reporters for under-covered topics across the country.
