New 988 crisis hotline goes live
Mental health help is now officially just three digits away: 988. The new national suicide prevention hotline went live on Saturday; you can dial or text the new number 24 hours a day, seven days a week for free.
CBS4 has been reporting on preparations for the launch for months and got a preview of how the crisis line will operate.
Researcher and Professor of Emergency Medicine at University of Colorado Anschutz Campus Dr. Emmy Betz weighed in, saying surprisingly, Colorado has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, ranked 7th. This new tool will help combat that.
"Maybe it was one good thing to come out of COVID is that we all started talking about mental health a lot more. Life is a bumpy rollercoaster, and I think it's important we all talk about that because there's treatment," said Betz.
Daily, she works to break the stigma around discussing mental health. "There's no shame in having a rough patch whether it's substance abuse or depression anxiety other mental illness."
And Betz says there's a large benefit in the 988 line, which used to operate as a 10-digit number. "It's short it's simple, it's nationwide."
Bev Marquez, CEO of Rocky Mountain Crisis Partners, helped launch the service. She told CBS4's Mekialaya White as of Saturday afternoon, her crisis counselors were busy on all lines. She and her team have already offered assistance through the Colorado Crisis Hotline, run by Rocky Mountain Crisis Partners. Those calls now transfer to the 988 hotline.
"We are a crisis call center offering crisis counseling, stabilization, peer support and texting services," said Marquez. "I think that Colorado is ahead of the curve because we've had these systems in place. For us this is an expansion, for other states this is a brand-new deal. But we have more to go, that's for sure."
The 988 number is routed through a national call center, based on area code. If you are in Colorado but your number is from out of state, you'll be directed to a call taker in your state.
