Crisis hotline calls rise after phone number changes to 988
Trained volunteers answer calls 24/7 at Memphis Crisis Center. Starting July 16, 2022, they also began helping field calls to 988, a national three-digit phone number. The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act, which was signed into law after the passage of bipartisan legislation in 2020, authorized 988 as a new easy-to-remember number for suicide and mental health crisis. (Ziggy Mack/The Daily Memphian file)
After the phone number for the national hotline for emergency mental health crises changed to just three digits — 988 — in July, about more 500 Tennesseans called every month.
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Mental health Savannah Burton UTHSC Memphis Crisis Center 988Ian Round
Ian Round is The Daily Memphian’s state government reporter based in Nashville. He came to Tennessee from Maryland, where he reported on local politics for Baltimore Brew. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland in December 2019.
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