On Saturday, July 16th, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline will offer a brand new way for people in mental health crisis to seek help. In order to remove barriers of access, instead of dialing the current 10-digit phone number, people will now be able to simply call or text 9-8-8 to access trained professionals who can help them in a mental health emergency.
Modeled after 9-1-1, this approach is designed to make access to mental health care simpler, while allowing callers to connect with a network of trained mental health professionals. To ensure that this new approach extends to other forms of mental health support, The New York Times notes: The line will be referred to as the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, to emphasize that the service is for people experiencing a mental health crisis of any kind, not just those involving suicidal ideation.
To ensure that we are providing students, faculty, and staff with the most relevant and streamlined access to crisis support, we have taken the following actions to roll out the 988 updates across our suite of well-being solutions:
- Our team has updated all instances of the YOU platform, ensuring our Help In Crisis buttons and Need Help Now cards are inclusive of up-to-date information on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
- All relevant cards with mention of suicide prevention or the previous National Suicide Prevention Lifeline information are updated to reflect the new 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline information.
- All instance of the YOU platform have a crisis resource card uploaded with the new 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline information to increase awareness around the existence of the resource.
- All FindHelpNow crisis resources that mention the previous National Suicide Prevention Lifeline information are updated to reflect the new 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline information.
If you would like to learn more about how we are reimagining campus crisis support through our YOU platform and FindHelpNow, please schedule a demo with our team today or reach out directly to inquiries@gritdigitalhealth.com.
