Mental Health Update

MHANYS has consistently said that New York State and Vibrant Emotional Health are doing an excellent job in New York State in the implementation of 988.  The issues remain the difficulty in hiring qualified staff and the great need for public awareness.    988 is an incredible service that helps save lives—the more we can do to spread the word, the better things will be for us and our loved ones. In addition, when we have the Stabilization Centers up and running, people will be able to get the respite they need during a crisis mitigating the need for law enforcement and emergency rooms.

988 crisis hotline faces workforce, and awareness hurdles despite millions in funding

The 988 mental health hotline has yielded murky results in its first two years of operation, despite millions in funding.

The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a $82 million contract on Wednesday to Vibrant Emotional Health, a Financial District-based nonprofit that administers the 988 hotline nationally. The three-year contract funds the nonprofit’s continued operation of the call, text, and online chat tool, which aims to connect individuals in crisis with mental health professionals.

State officials have also invested millions in the program. Since the launch of the hotline two years ago, Gov. Kathy Hochul has allocated $155 million to its operation, according to James Plastiras, a spokesman for the Office of Mental Health.

But despite investments, New York’s program faces continued challenges. Workforce shortages have stalled the city and state from being able to fully staff clinician roles. A lack of public awareness campaigns has resulted in very few people knowing what the hotline is for.

Roughly a fifth of the population nationwide knows about the 988 hotline, a percentage that is far too low, according to Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association of New York State.

“People don’t know that there’s a trained clinician waiting for them at no cost,” Liebman said. “Until it’s 100% awareness, we’ve got a long way to go.”

The federal government rolled out the 988 mental health line in July 2022 in an effort to shorten the national 10-digit suicide lifeline and offer a non-police-involved mental health crisis response system. The hotline has been lauded by advocates as the “gold standard” of mental health care, as it connects individuals to rapid support and follow-up crisis care.

City and state programs have logged thousands of calls in the two years following the rollout. New York State’s 988 hotline has received nearly 430,000 calls, texts, and chats between May 2023 and May 2024, according to data from the Office of Mental Health. It responded to roughly 82% of those contacts within the year-long period.

The city has also seen its call volume increase since the hotline launched two years ago. The city’s 988 centers responded to just over 44,000 calls, texts, and chats in August 2023, the most recent month that data is available. The city declined to provide the number of calls, texts, and chats it received to the line nor a rate indicating how many incoming contacts received mental health support.

Mental health clinicians and advocates have embraced New York’s efforts to ramp up the 988 hotline, pointing to the challenges of managing a large system. However public awareness remains a challenge that limits the number of people that this resource can serve.

Matt Kudish, chief executive officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in New York City, said that “significant investments” should be made to improve public awareness of a crisis response system that doesn’t involve police, to encourage people of color and marginalized groups to use the resource.

“If folks don’t know to call 988, they’re going to call 911,” Kudish said. “We believe strongly that there’s no place for police response in a mental health crisis.”