The 988 hotline is a new hotline set specifically for mental health crises. During the meeting today, there was a discussion about the goals and the challenges this hotline would have going forward.
There were two types of goals discussed today – short and long-term goals. With the short-term goals, the 988 hotline aims to have a more strengthened lifeline response to crisis calls, texts, and chats. These short-term goals are only able to be accomplished with word of mouth – getting the word out would be the most effective way to accomplish these goals. The long-term goal for this hotline is to establish a more efficient crisis care system available for people to use anywhere in the country.
With all goals are some challenges, though. It was discussed that there would be some difficulties with follow-up with people that call. Most call centers and organisations don’t follow up with clients – a proposed solution included creating a follow-up program for the client to make sure that problems are being handled in a healthy manner.
