Starting Saturday, someone in a mental health crisis or needing help can either call or text 9-8-8. It's easier to remember and faster to dial than the current (208) 398-4357 Idaho hotline.
"People can certainly look it up on their phone but that's just one extra step," said Lee Flinn, the director of the Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline.
The main goal of the new number is, "for a person that's having emotional distress or mental health struggles or substance use challenges, to really make it as easy as possible for that person to get the support they need when they need it," Flinn said.
Suicide claimed 421 lives in Idaho in 2020. The year before that, Idaho had the 11th highest suicide rate in the country, according to the Department of Health and Welfare.
For many, 9-1-1 is the first number they dial when someone's suffering a mental health crisis, but calling police can turn deadly.
"To make it clear that when you're struggling with certain things, that you call 9-8-8 and to really differentiate from 9-1-1," Flinn said. "9-1-1 gets a lot of calls and hopefully that will be balanced out and some of the behavioral health calls will start going to 9-8-8. That's going to be better for everyone."
You can call 9-8-8 if you're in emotional distress, are having trouble with drugs or alcohol, have family or relationship problems, have suicidal thoughts or are in another kind of crisis.
The hotline is meant to help reduce the strain on police, the criminal justice system and emergency rooms.
"To keep them out of a higher level of care, like say maybe an emergency department and such. By all means sometimes people need to go to an emergency department but not always, and so there are other parts of the crisis care system that are available to help individuals in crisis," Flinn said.
Each month, the Idaho Crisis and Suicide Hotline gets over 2,000 calls, texts and chat messages. That number is growing with the population. And once 9-8-8 goes live, they're expecting even more calls.
“By the end of this year, expect the call volume to be much much higher than it is today," Flinn said.
She says they’ve doubled the size of their staff this year, and they’ll be starting another round of hiring again soon to keep up with the growing need.
"Idaho is in a really good position right now and has actually invested funds to help us and to help other people within the crisis care system transition to 9-8-8," Flinn said.
The state has invested about $4.5 million for 988 this year.
Tonight if you or someone you know is in crisis or just needs someone to talk to, you can call 208-398-4357 - 24/7, all year round.
"The vast majority of the time, our crisis responders are able to help that person de-escalate and de-stress, and sometimes the person is going through something that's beyond what we can help them with, and so other agencies out there can help individuals in crisis - our mobile crisis units and then also community crisis centers," Flinn said.
After Saturday's launch, if you dial the 10-digit number, your call will be directed as if you dialed 9-8-8.
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