A Closer Look at the 988 Lifeline

Part I

In 1982, my mother volunteered to work for a new mental health crisis line in our rural southern Iowa town. The telephone and line were donated by the local phone company and installed at the county hospital, and volunteers took turns monitoring the phone from 5pm-10pm twice a week after training with a high school guidance counselor. My mom remembers a lot of crank calls at first, but eventually receiving one to two legitimate calls per shift. The service only lasted a year, until the farm crisis and bank closures hit and funding for the program ended.

Forty years later, my sister worked as a Crisis Prevention Counselor for the new national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline answering chat and text messages, and recently shared some of her experiences and insights into the modernized system.

What is 988?