New suicide prevention lifeline number 988 launches Saturday

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - In just a few days, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is changing numbers. It’ll be a major change when calling for help, but the good news is it’s an easy number to remember.

Starting Saturday, you’ll want to call 988 for suicide or mental health-related crisis support.

When people call, text or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen to callers, understand how their problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources, if necessary.

According to the CDC, nearly 46,000 people died by suicide in 2020. That’s one death every 11 minutes.

“988 is a desperately needed change. It's, I think, going to make access so much easier for people,” Katie Harper, executive director at NAMI Southwest Ohio, said.

Think of 988 as a rebranding of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Shortened to just three digits, 988 will connect you to the nearest available mental health counselor in your area.

“If you were to call 988, you're going to be greeted by a suicide and crisis intervention counselor who's going to be someone who's warm, empathetic and someone who's going to listen to someone's story,” said Alex Rulon, director of Community Care at Talbert House.

Talbert House is the 988 provider in Hamilton County.

“The biggest barrier for us was obviously the staffing piece, making sure that we had enough staff in place that were trained and ready to begin to take calls at this level, because fielding calls from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a higher level phone call than traditional phone calls that we can get,” Rulon said.

Local 12 asked Rulon, "So come Saturday, if I were to call 988, am I going to be connected to a local counselor?"

Rulon said yes.

“So while the line 988 is going live, the back end structure of 988 has been in place for months now. And people have been testing it and it is working, and I firmly believe we are ready to begin to take those calls,” Rulon said.

Rulon says the goal is to answer each phone call within 20 seconds.

“Now, there are times where that is unable to happen, but we have backup plans in place where if the primary call center doesn't answer within the first 20 seconds, it will roll to the next call center. They have 20 to 30 seconds to answer that call and so on,” Rulon said. “So [Talbert House is] the primary call center for Hamilton County, and we are the primary backup center for the entire state. So come Saturday, we will have anywhere between eight and 14 people on the line per shift to be able to position ourselves to be able to field every call that comes in within the first 20 seconds of them waiting on hold.”

You can call or text 988.

“It's exceptionally important because it gives people a quick, easy, simple way to reach someone when they are in crisis,” Rulon said. “When someone is in crisis, the furthest thing from their mind is a strange 10-digit number that they likely haven't called before. Eventually, we will get to the point where 988 will become just like 911. It'll be nationally recognized, and it'll be simple and easy for people to use when they're in emotional crisis.”

While the number launches nationally on Saturday, Rulon says 988 already works in Hamilton County.

“This is just one way to remove a barrier to access, and I really hope that people take advantage of being able to reach out for help easier,” Harper said.

The current lifeline phone number, 1-800-273-8255, will always remain available to people in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, even after 988 is launched nationally on Saturday.

Calls to 988 from a Northern Kentucky area code should be routed to the NorthKey center. Marcie Timmerman, executive director of Mental Health America of Kentucky, says NorthKey Community Care completed the nearly one-year process to become a certified 988 call center, and they are backed up by that national network.

Calls to 988 should ALWAYS receive an answer.