Most Mental Health Crisis Services Did Not Increase Following Launch of 988 Crisis Hotline

The launch of the nation's 988 mental health hotline did not coincide with significant and equitable growth in the availability of most crisis services, except for a small increase in peer support services, according to a new RAND study.

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline provides an easy-to-remember phone number to access trained crisis counselors and emergency mental health services. It replaced the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which had been reachable via an 800 phone number and was narrowly focused on suicide as opposed to mental health crises more broadly.

Examining reports from thousands of mental health treatment facilities about the types of crisis services offered before and after the July 2022 rollout of the 988 hotline, researchers found that there was an increase in peer support services, a significant decrease in psychiatric walk-in services, and small declines in mobile crisis response and suicide prevention services.

“The lack of meaningful growth in most crisis services may limit the long-run success of 988, in particular if callers feel that reaching out to 988 fails to result in access to appropriate sources of care,” said Jonathan Cantor, lead author of the study and a policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization.

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