What is the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline? 

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a national network of 200 local crisis centers that provide free, confidential support to people across the United States. Calls to the 988 Lifeline are automatically routed to the closest 988 Lifeline crisis center based on the area code of the phone being used. If for some reason the local 988 Lifeline crisis center is not available, the call is automatically routed to a national backup crisis center.

The 988 Lifeline also recognizes the importance of privacy in communications and has several safeguards in place. No personal data is required from callers in order to receive services. Any demographic information obtained from callers is used only to evaluate and improve services and connect callers to ongoing support services. 

Recently, the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 was passed by Congress to permit states to apply specific 988 telecommunication fees to support the 988 Lifeline, separate and distinct from 911 operations.

Who can use the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline? 

Anyone in the United States can either call or text 988 or chat to 988lifeline.org — collectively, the “988 Lifeline” — for either themselves or someone they are worried about. The 988 Lifeline offers trained crisis counselors available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide support for any kind of emotional or mental health-related distress, including thoughts of suicide or a substance use crisis.

The intent is to grow the 988 Lifeline to operate similar to the way 911 currently operates, but with a specific focus on anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts or emotional/mental health or substance abuse crises.

How does the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline work? 

When calling 988, the caller will hear a greeting message while they are routed to their local Lifeline network crisis center. Next, a trained crisis counselor answers the call, listens to the caller and provides support and shares resources as needed. Live services are provided in both English and Spanish with translation services available in over 250 languages (texting is currently only available in English).

In addition, veterans, current service members and their families can now reach the Veterans Crisis Line by calling 988 and pressing option 1.