Since 988 launch, mental health crisis services have faltered

In July 2022, 988 launched as the number anyone across the country could dial in a mental health crisis. It’s one entryway to a sprawling system of mental health care options, but new research shows that since then, critical crisis services have not become more available — a key objective of the nationwide rollout, designed to strengthen an underfunded, patchwork system that left many people alone in times of crisis. 

While calls to the national hotline have continued to increase, fewer psychiatric facilities are offering emergency psychiatric walk-in services, mobile crisis response units, and suicide prevention services, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry. 

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