Since July 2022, anyone experiencing emotional distress or suicidal thoughts can dial 988, a new national hotline that connects callers to local crisis centers.
But the nationwide mental health phone line has experienced some bad connections. And some can be the difference between life and death.
Each time a person calls 988 on their cell phone, the call is routed to a city associated with the phone’s area code — but not where the caller necessarily lives. That leaves the caller talking to a 988 person potentially thousands of miles away who is unaware of the caller’s local mental health crisis services — and unable to dispatch help.
“If you live in Los Angeles County and have a different cell phone area code, you won’t be able to access LA County’s call center when you call 988,” explained Fourth District L.A. County Supervisor and board chair Janice Hahn. “This is a serious problem, because only L.A. County’s call centers can connect that person to L.A. County help.”
Hahn said in some instances, 988 callers are turned away because they are calling from an out of county area code.
And the problem is statewide. “We can attest that routing by area code is causing challenges with connecting 988 callers to local resources across the state,” said a statement released on Friday, Aug. 11, by Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services. “Routing calls by a caller’s area code is an issue when a help-seeker wants to connect with local crisis support services like a mobile crisis response team which is locally managed and deployed.”
Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services provides the service in L.A. County and 11 other 988 crisis call centers. The one in L.A. County also handles calls from Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Imperial counties.
Another communication breakdown occurs if for some reason the call is routed by using the person’s ZIP code. If that person has moved, the crisis counselor can be from the city of an old address,…
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