988 Frequently Asked Questions

The 988 Lifeline responds 24/7 to calls, chats or texts from anyone who needs support for suicidal, mental health, and/or substance use crisis, and connects those in need with a counselor who listens and talks through your unique situation to give personal, judgment-free support. There are many reasons that people connect with the 988 Lifeline beyond suicide. Some examples include problems with drug or alcohol use, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, mental illness, loneliness, trauma, bullying, stress, relationship troubles, and just needing someone to talk with.

Yes. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, reached by dialing 1-800-273-8255, was relaunched in July 2022 as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which is reached by dialing the easy-to-remember phone number, 988.

Yes. Anyone who needs mental health-, suicide- or substance use-related crisis support, or who has a loved one in crisis, can call, text, or chat 988 (as long as telephone, cellular or internet services are available) and reach a crisis counselor who will provide skilled, caring support. No matter who you are, where you live, or what you’re going through, 988 counselors are here to listen and help.

When you call 988, you will hear a greeting message, followed by a menu of choices that offer you the option to connect you to specially trained counselors for Veterans, service members, and their families (through the Veterans Crisis Line, operated by the Veteran’s Administration), Spanish speakers and LGBTQI+ youth and young adults. If you choose one of these services, your call is then routed to the service you have chosen. If you do not choose a service, you will be connected to a local 988 Lifeline crisis contact center based on either your approximate location or your phone’s area code. You can bypass the menu options by dialing zero.

You will hear music until a skilled, caring crisis counselor answers the phone. Once you are connected, your counselor will, introduce themselves, ask you about your safety, listen to you, and work to understand how your problem is affecting you. They will provide personal, judgment-free support and share resources that may be helpful. If your local crisis contact center is unable to take your call, you are automatically routed to a national backup crisis contact center.

If you speak a language other than English or Spanish, the 988 Lifeline uses Language Line Solutions to provide interpretation to callers in more than 240 additional languages. There is no cost to you for language interpretation.

When you text 988, you will first see prompts with instructions on how to connect with Veteran and service-member support at the Veterans Crisis Line (text 838255 directly), Spanish-speaking crisis counselors (enter AYUDA), and LGBTQI+ trained counselors for youth and young adults (enter PRIDE). If you are not trying to connect with one of these services, reply NEXT to move through the prompts.

You will then be asked questions designed to assess what you need. Your answers will help the counselor understand how they can best support you. The text prompts will continue to guide you as you wait to be connected with a counselor. The counselor will assess your safety, listen to you, work to understand how your problem is affecting you, provide support, and share resources that may be helpful.

Chat is available in both English and Spanish through the 988 Lifeline’s website at 988lifeline.org/chat and linea988.org/chat. After clicking on the chat link, a brief survey will open. The survey helps 988 crisis counselors understand how best to support you and takes less than five minutes to complete. Once you click “Start a chat” at the bottom of the survey screen, you will see a screen that indicates 988 is connecting you to a counselor. Once you are connected, the counselor will introduce themselves and will ask you about your safety. The counselor will listen to you, work to understand how your problem is affecting you, provide support, and share resources that may be helpful.

Yes, the 988 Lifeline works. Numerous studies have shown that most Lifeline callers are significantly more likely to feel less depressed, less suicidal, less overwhelmed, and more hopeful after speaking to a 988 Lifeline crisis counselor. 988 Lifeline counselors are trained to help reduce the intensity of a situation for the person seeking help and connect them to additional local resources, as needed, to support their wellbeing.

Most people who reach out to the 988 Lifeline are helped by the crisis counselor, resources shared, or community connections made (without involvement of 911) during the call, text, or chat.

People using the 988 Lifeline are not required to provide any payment or insurance information to receive support. However, standard data rates from telecommunication mobile carriers may apply to those who text to 988. If monetary assistance is needed for communications needs due to data rates, please see www.fcc.gov/lifeline-consumers for more information.

At the time of publishing these FAQs, average time for a crisis counselor to answer after the greeting menu options is typically under a minute. Sometimes, the wait may be longer; please stay on the line. Your connection is important, and a caring counselor will respond as soon as they can. You can see average wait times on SAMHSA’s 988 Performance Metrics webpage. Wait times shown on the 988 Performance Metrics webpage are calculated from the time your call, text, or chat is routed to the service you have chosen.

The people answering the 988 Lifeline are located in more than 200 local, state, and territory-run crisis contact centers. They will listen, support, assess your situation, share resources, and make community connections. 988 crisis contact centers may have variations in wait times, and wait times may be impacted by the time of day.

Yes, the 988 crisis counselors provide caring support and resources for family, friends, caregivers, and advocates who reach out about another person they are concerned about.

Yes, anyone located in a U.S. state, territory or tribal land with access to telephone, cellular, or internet services can connect to a skilled, caring crisis counselor by calling, chatting, or texting 988.

SAMHSA’s longer-term vision is that the transition to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which began in July 2022, will continue to promote the growth of a robust crisis care system across our country that links callers to community-based providers who can deliver a full range of crisis care services (like mobile crisis teams or stabilization centers). Currently, these crisis care services do not exist in all areas of the country, and it will take time and sustained support for this crisis care system to evolve.

Veterans, Service Members, and their families can call 988 and press 1 to be connected to the Veterans Crisis Lifeline. To learn more, please visit https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/about/what-is-988.

You can order promotional print materials for 988 from the 988 Print Materials Website. You’ll find several types of materials, including posters, stickers, vinyl clings, and more as well as simple instructions for ordering them. If your needs exceed item order limits, you can request assistance by sending an email to the Government Publishing Office (GPO) 988 team at 988SAMHSA@gpo.gov.

After placing your order, you will receive a confirmation email with your order number from GPO. When the order ships, you will receive an email with a tracking number from the shipping company (currently UPS). Orders take up to three weeks to arrive.

You can also visit the 988 Partner Toolkit, for all 988 digital materials, social media, photos, logo and branding, and more.

Yes. Although the 10-digit number was transitioned to the easier-to-remember “988” in July 2022, it remains functional and will connect you to 988 Lifeline services.

988 is for emotional and behavioral health support with minimal law enforcement involvement unless there is an immediate physical safety threat. The primary goal of the 988 Lifeline is to provide support for people in suicidal crisis or mental health-related distress in the moments they need it most and in a manner that is person-centered. The 988 Lifeline coordinated response is intended to promote stabilization and care in the least restrictive manner. Most crises are managed by counselors working with you to de-escalate the situation and without involving law enforcement.

If you or the person you are calling about is in physical danger, your 988 counselor will contact 911 for emergency services support. Some examples of times when it is appropriate to call 911 for a medical emergency are:

• A suicide attempt in progress.
• A person has a specific suicide or self-harm plan that they are or intend to immediately carry out and they have the means to carry it out.
• A person is suspected of being in the midst of an overdose.
• A person is experiencing physical symptoms such as chest pain or shortness of breath that could be either a panic attack or an acute medical emergency.

We encourage you to reach out for help early in your mental health, suicide, or substance use crisis, so that a caring 988 counselor can help you before you get to this point.

Every 988 Lifeline crisis center adheres to the 988 Lifeline’s Suicide Safety Policy (PDF | 490 KB), which means that crisis center counselors actively engage with people at risk and provide support and assistance for people at risk in the least restrictive setting possible. In fact, most peoples’ needs are resolved in their call, text, or chat connection with the 988 counselor and do not require additional immediate intervention. For many others who need more support than what a 988 counselor can provide, a mobile crisis team visit can often provide the help without requiring hospitalization.

Sources of federal funding for 988 are separate from those of the 911 system. Additionally, the 2020 Hotline Designation Act (PDF | 242 KB) permits states to apply specific 988 telecommunication fees to support crisis services in a manner that is distinct from fees used to support 911 operations. State and local support of both 988 and 911 are necessary to advance the health and well-being of our communities.

In most states, the 211 system provides health and social service assistance information and referrals. The 988 Lifeline crisis counselors provide support for people in suicidal crisis or mental health-related distress in the very moments they need it most. While generally being different in scope, these systems need to be aligned, and in many cases, local 988 Lifeline centers also respond to 211 contacts. We envision that 988 Lifeline crisis centers will need to continue to coordinate with 211 and other warmlines. This will help ensure a collaborative approach regardless of which number a person may use first.

There are ongoing efforts to improve cultural competency training for 988 Lifeline crisis counselors. Some examples of related improvements to the 988 Lifeline are that:

• Spanish-speaking crisis counselors are answering calls, texts, and chats in Spanish.
• LGBTQI+ trained crisis counselors answer calls, texts, and chats in a specialized LGBTQI+ youth and young adult service.
• Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people can communicate with counselors in American Sign Language.
• The 988lifeline.org website has expanded information related to mental health wellness in the Black community.
• The 988 Lifeline has specific tools and trainings for crisis counselors, such as Spanish-language clinical guidance resources, Deaf and Hard of Hearing best practices for callers/chat visitors, a training course on cultural responsiveness in crisis counseling, an LGBTQI+ guidance document, guidance and webinar trainings for supporting people in rural communities, and an American Indian/Alaskan Native tip sheet.

Callers who are Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, Hard of Hearing, and Late-Deafened can directly dial 988 on a videophone or click the "Deaf/HoH" button on 988lifeline.org to connect with skilled counselors who can communicate in ASL and are trained in working with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

Yes. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) youth and young adults who want to connect with a counselor specifically focused on meeting their needs can call 988 and select option 3, text PRIDE to 988, or access the service via chat.

Anyone who needs support for a suicidal, mental health and/or substance use crisis, or who has a loved one in distress, can connect with a skilled, caring crisis counselor by calling, chatting, or texting 988 (if telephone, cellular, or internet service is available). This is true for Tribal nations, as well.

SAMHSA recognizes the unique implementation barriers and challenges facing Tribal nations and is supporting coordination efforts with the existing 988 Lifeline infrastructure. SAMHSA expects states and territories to coordinate with Tribal nations to ensure a supportive response for tribal contacts to the 988 Lifeline, while maintaining respect for Tribal nation sovereignty.

Additional efforts are underway to partner with Tribal nations to expand the 988 Lifeline in these communities, including training counselors who are culturally and linguistically aware. SAMHSA is supporting a crisis center academy for Tribal grantees who are building or enhancing crisis services for their community. We’ve also expanded the 988 Lifeline partner network to include Tribal communities as part of SAMHSA grantmaking.

People who call, text, or chat the 988 Lifeline are not required to provide any personal information to receive services. SAMHSA recognizes the importance and the expectation of privacy when a person contacts 988. The network system has several safeguards to address concerns about privacy.

Any effort to obtain demographic information from those who use the 988 Lifeline will serve three primary purposes: 1) to save lives; 2) to connect people to ongoing supports; and 3) to evaluate system needs and performance, particularly ensuring that gaps and inequities are being addressed.

The 988 Lifeline greeting states that calls may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes. Additionally, crisis centers in the 988 Lifeline network may independently use call recordings for training purposes, dependent on the best practices of the center.

However, it’s important to note that people contacting the 988 Lifeline are not required to provide any personal information to receive services. SAMHSA recognizes the importance and the expectation of privacy when a person contacts the 988 Lifeline. The network system has several safeguards to address concerns about privacy.

No. The Lifeline administrator, Vibrant Emotional Health, is a not-for-profit organization with a primary mission to support emotional wellbeing for all people, and it does not sell Lifeline data.

• Georouting is a way of directing phone calls locally without including the caller’s precise location information in the transferred call data. When a person calls the 988 Lifeline, their call would be sent automatically to a crisis call center near their approximate physical location. With georouting, the routing and service providers would not receive detailed information about the exact “pinpoint” location of callers.
• Geolocation is a more general term that refers to a person’s precise geographical location. In most cases, that location information is associated with the device a person accesses a service from. A widely-familiar example of geolocation is the usage of smartphone precise GPS location to provide local services in Apps. The 988 Lifeline has no plans at this time to implement geolocation.

When a person calls 988 from a phone using a carrier that has implemented georouting, unless they select one of the specialized services offered through the national network, they will be connected to a nearby crisis call center. Callers who use a wireless carrier for which georouting is not active will be connected to the nearest 988 crisis call center based on the defined location of the first six digits (area code and prefix) of the caller's phone number, regardless of the actual location of the caller. Calls that are not answered locally within a set amount of time get answered by 988’s national back up network.

By connecting callers to centers well-versed in their community’s specific services and local resources, georouting helps enhance the relevance and quality of care available to each caller. Many crisis center directors, advocates, people with lived experience, and state and local behavioral health care leaders have expressed the need for calls to be answered by centers within a caller’s state. There are three key reasons for this:

• Community Care: Having residents receive local community resources helps improve connections to care and build trust in the system.
• Safety: In imminent risk situations where emergency dispatches and rescue procedures are needed, many 988 Lifeline centers have relationships with their local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to streamline this process.
• Funding: State and local appropriations are tied to expectations around serving state and local community populations. To budget, scale and size programs appropriately, it is vital to fully understand resource needs and utilization in these communities.

Georouting does not include a caller’s precise location information in any data that is sent throughout the 988 network. The goal is to help people in crisis reach support local to where they are calling from. Georouting simply makes it more likely than in the past for a caller to reach a local crisis center.

Geolocation, or receiving pinpoint information for dispatch during an emergency, is not currently enabled for 988 and is not under active consideration.

SAMHSA is committed to helping all U.S. wireless carriers implement georouting. Once the major carriers have activated georouting, SAMHSA and Vibrant will be able to share tested implementation strategies with all remaining U.S. carriers.

In October 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules to require all wireless carriers to implement georouting for calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. These rules will facilitate access to the 988 Lifeline’s critical local intervention services by requiring wireless providers to implement georouting solutions for 988 calls to route wireless calls to local crisis centers based on the geographic area associated with the origin of a 988 call rather than by area code, while protecting the privacy needs of the caller. The FCC’s 988 call georouting rule has a compliance deadline of Jan. 13 for nationwide commercial mobile radio service providers and Dec. 14, 2026, for non-nationwide providers. The FCC has also proposed a rule to require text providers to implement georouting for text messages.

No. 988 provides specialized counseling for veterans, Spanish speakers, LGBTQI+ youth and young adults, and people who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing; these services will continue to route to national service providers.

No. Many states and localities operate a significant number of crisis centers separately from the Lifeline network.

Mobile crisis units are optimally staffed by mental health and substance use treatment and recovery professionals, paraprofessionals and peer support workers to respond to people experiencing emotional and substance use distress in the community as an alternative to law enforcement. While there are situations where the presence of other first responders is necessary for safety purposes, the goal of this service is to provide individualized, health-first responses to mental health and substance use crisis situations.

The main objectives of community-based mobile crisis intervention services are to provide rapid response, individual assessment, and crisis resolution by trained mental health and substance use treatment professionals, paraprofessionals and peer support workers.

Teams typically will:

• Triage/screen a person’s immediate needs, including explicitly screening for suicidality
• Assess a person’s emotional health condition
• Deescalate/resolve the crisis
• Provide peer support by people with lived experience in recovery from an emotional or substance use health condition
• Coordinate with medical and behavioral health services for follow-up care
• Create a safety plan with the person
• Connect the person to community support and follow-up care

The two primary models are:

• Mobile crisis teams, in which a team of behavioral health staff and peers respond to the person in crisis, and
• Co-responder teams, in which a team including law enforcement or emergency medical staff and a mental health professional respond jointly.

The appropriate approach in a given situation in a particular community will depend in part on the assessment of risk and imminent threat, as well as the service availability, laws and regulations of the community’s jurisdiction. A small community that has no mobile crisis capacity and that shares mental health staff with other communities may face different constraints than a large urban community with greater resources.

SAMHSA’s long-term vision is for full access to mobile crisis services across all communities. Currently, mobile crisis services and the mobile crisis models used at the state, territory, Tribal, and local levels vary around the country. The availability and number of mobile crisis services has been rapidly expanding over the last several years.

Mobile crisis services are ideally available 24/7; however, their availability currently varies by the location. Services can be provided in the home or any community-based setting where a crisis may be occurring. In most cases where mobile crisis teams exist, a two-person crisis team is on call and available to respond. Some units use telehealth as a component of the service delivery. The team may be comprised of professionals and paraprofessionals (including trained peer support providers) who are trained in crisis intervention skills and in serving as the first responders to people needing help on an emergency basis.

The training varies according to the individual mobile crisis program. In general, mobile crisis responders are trained in trauma-informed care, de-escalation, cultural sensitivity, acute behavioral health screening and assessment, crisis intervention, safety planning, and harm reduction.

There are a range of federal resources available to support mobile crisis services, including the Mental Health Block Grant and State Opioid Response programs, the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, and the Community Crisis Response Partnerships program. Some states also include mobile crisis services in their respective state Medicaid plans. States that choose to cover community-based mobile crisis intervention services under Medicaid and, pursuant to section 9813 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, can receive an enhanced federal medical assistance percentage of 85% if the services meet certain requirements.

The goals of mobile crisis are to provide assessment, de-escalation, treatment intervention, safety planning, and referral in community settings and in a manner that minimizes the need for hospitalization. Most people with suicidal thoughts will not require involuntary transport or hospitalization. Mobile crisis teams can do a suicide risk assessment to determine the best type of help needed and how to get the person in need that help. When mobile crisis teams determine that hospitalization is necessary due to imminent safety concerns, the team works to engage the person in crisis and meet the preference of the person. Involuntary hospitalization may be needed in circumstances of imminent risk where the other efforts are not successful.

Billing will depend on the specific policies of the organization or jurisdiction providing the mobile crisis service. There are existing payment codes that permit payment of the services through public and private payers. SAMHSA recommends that nobody should be denied or delayed access to services based on their ability to pay; this is the standard practice of most mobile crisis teams.

There are several existing federal resources that can be leveraged to support 988 implementation. Examples from SAMHSA include 988 Lifeline grants to states, territories, and tribes; the 988 Lifeline crisis center follow-up grant; the crisis set-aside through the Mental Health Block Grant; and funding through the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) program. States are also able to leverage Medicaid dollars and State Opioid Response grants. States can find descriptions of these funding sources in the 2025 National Guidelines for a Behavioral Health Coordinated System of Crisis Care (PDF | 1.4 MB) and in the 988 Convening Playbook for States, Territories, and Tribes (PDF | 1.1 MB).

From 2022 to 2024, SAMHSA has provided over 200 grant awards to states, territories, and tribes for 988. The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020 gave states the ability to enact new telecommunications fees to financially support 988 operations. Success of 988 rests heavily upon state, territorial and local leadership in leveraging the resources already available in addition to making new investments.

As a component of SAMHSA’s funding, states/territories are required to address outreach and engagement strategies for populations at higher risk of suicide (many of whom are communities of color and historically marginalized groups), including plans for how they will measure effectiveness in improving outcomes and access to services across populations.