In WA, it might soon be easier to get mental health help over the phone
Seattle TimesApr 18, 2024
Apr. 17—Washington state is heading into a new stage as it tries to develop better systems for responding to mental health crises: It's placing counselors for its 988 mental health crisis hotline alongside staff who answer 911 calls.
On Tuesday, officials from across
The new program, which officially launched
When someone calls 911 but they're in need of mental health services, their call will be diverted to someone on staff who is charged with operating the 988 line. When people call 911 and express a need for housing, financial or food assistance, they'll get redirected to staff in charge of 211, the state's social service line.
"We want to de-engineer some of this, so to speak, so that the public doesn't have to worry about, 'Did I call the right number, or, which number do I call?'" said
Crisis Connections is hiring 11 staff to field 988 and 211 calls at the new hub. The program is housed at an existing 911 call center operated by Valley Communications Center, which serves a wide swath of
911 operators had the ability to transfer someone to 988 before the launch of the new program, and vice versa.
Embedding crisis counselors within the 911 center, though, could help build communities' trust in each of these systems and create a more seamless path between them, said
"Not only do we transfer the calls, and handle the calls immediately, but we can talk about better ways to handle calls," Mayer said. "Oftentimes an emergency response will escalate [the situation] ... Being together and really looking at it holistically is the benefit."
Three three-digit lines
The call center now employs people who answer the state's three separate crisis and social service phone lines: 911, 988 and 211.
A majority of calls are coming from 911: about 2,000 calls a day, said Mayer. In cases where callers are reporting an emergency — a fire, car crash, violence, or instances where someone is in imminent danger of hurting themselves or others — their call could lead to the arrival of an ambulance or police.
But 911 staff often receive calls that don't merit that kind of response, said McDaniel. The new center should "more quickly take those calls from 911 to the right place," she said.
When a caller needs a different kind of service, dispatchers transfer them to someone better suited to provide mental health or social service resources. Since the new program's launch in March, about 100 calls to 911 were redirected to staff who oversee the 988 and 211 hotlines, Mayer said.
People can call or text the line when they're in crisis or know someone else in need of care. Callers are paired with counselors who offer a listening ear or can help schedule them for a next-day appointment. The phone line is accessible to people who speak Spanish, and interpreter services are available in more than 250 languages. Callers can also get connected to the Native and Strong Crisis Lifeline, where calls are answered by Native crisis counselors.
Usually, the mental health calls can be directly resolved by counselors, just by talking. In limited cases, people could be connected with mobile crisis teams who respond in person, and the county is hoping to expand the availability of mobile crisis response in the coming years.
A 988 call could result in a 911 response if someone's life is in danger and crisis counselors are unable to resolve the concern on the phone, but this is very rare, according to the federal
In its first year of operation, about 7,000 to 8,600 Washingtonians called the line each month, according to a state report from November.
The new call center in
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