New Suicide Prevention Hotline Takes Effect In PA: What To Know

PENNSYLVANIA — The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline telephone number will be simplified to 988 on Saturday, for residents of Pennsylvania or anywhere in the United States to talk with a mental health expert.

Until the switch on Saturday, July 16, Keystone State residents in crisis should continue to dial or text 800-273-8255. Online chat services are also available. Service members, veterans and their families can reach the Veterans Crisis Line by pressing 1, or by either texting 838255, or online.

All those suicide prevention services will remain operational after the transition, too, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Anyone can use 988 at any time, at no cost.

"Trained crisis response professionals can support individuals considering suicide, self-harm, or any behavioral or mental health need for themselves or people looking for help for a loved one experiencing a mental health crisis," the state health department said. "Lifeline services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at no cost to the caller."

To read more from the PA Department of Health Services, click here.

Nearly three dozen states had to get ready last year to include the area code in local cell phone calls, but Pennsylvania was not one of these. The change was required because the new three-digit suicide prevention hotline number is also a prefix (the second set of three digits of a phone number) in 82 area codes in 35 states and Guam.

Some mental health experts are worried states haven’t adequately prepared for the switch to 988.

Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, an assistant secretary at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said at a news conference Thursday she has been working with states on funding to determine their readiness for the 988 switch, USA Today reported.

Some crisis centers are worried about their ability to staff crisis response centers, and about funding needed for the launch. A report from the agency Delphin-Rittmon heads projects that calls to the suicide hotline will increase by more than half in 2022 with 7.6 million calls, texts or online chats, compared to 3.3 million in 2020.

The Biden administration set aside $432 million for the initial investment in the transition, another $177 million to expand the lifeline infrastructure and almost $105 million in direct grants to states and territories, Delphin-Rittmon said.

Fewer than half of state legislatures have approved bills to fund 988 implementation, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy. Pennsylvania does not have a bill in the works, according to the academy's website.

The 988 rollout comes amid escalating suicides and suicide attempts, especially among adolescents and teen girls ages 12-17, during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research.

Mental health-related emergency room visits by people in that age group increased 31 percent in 2020, compared to 2019, and the trend appears to be continuing, according to CDC research. It showed:

From Feb. 21-March 20, 2021, ER visits for attempted suicides among girls ages 12-17 were 50.6 percent higher than during the same period in 2019. Over the same period, the increase in suicide attempts for boys of the same ages was 3.7 percent.

The trend is alarming because overall, suicide rates are significantly higher among males than females, according to CDC data cited in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report on the 988 conversion.

Overall, 1,694 residents of all ages of Pennsylvania died by suicide in 2020, which amounts to 12.6 suicide deaths per 100,000 people according to the CDC. That compares to 1,896 suicide deaths in 2019.

Patch's national desk contributed to this report.