Theresa Opeka
Carolina Journal
US Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, is applauding the recent announcement by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for plans to begin implementing geo-routing for incoming calls to the 9-8-8 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Network.
“From the creation of the 9-8-8 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to historic mental health investments included in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, we have made substantial progress in recent years in expanding access to quality mental health care,” said Tillis, founder and co-chair of the bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus. “This new geo-routing policy furthers that goal by ensuring those experiencing a mental health crisis receive rapid and localized care when calling the Lifeline.”
Formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, the service is made up of an expansive network of over 200 local and state-funded crisis contact centers located across the United States. Crisis counselors answer calls, chats, and texts from people in distress that the 9-8-8 Lifeline receives daily.
Currently, calls to the hotline are routed by area code rather than by the caller’s location, but the new policy would route the calls by the caller’s location instead.
According to Tillis’ press release, in North Carolina, the 9-8-8 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has received over 112,000 calls, texts, and chats over the last 12 months, with an average response time of 14.2 seconds and a 98% answer rate. Significantly, 90% of North Carolinians who contacted the hotline with thoughts of suicide reported improvement in how they were feeling by the end of the call.
Tillis introduced the Local 9-8-8 Response Act of 2023, legislation in December, along with US Sen. Alex Padilla, D-CA, co-chair of the Senate Mental Health Caucus. It would expedite the process of connecting callers with their nearest call center so they can receive appropriate care from mental health professionals as quickly and as safely as possible, while still protecting user privacy.
In March, Tillis and Padilla joined Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to announce that the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to address the discrepancies and inefficiencies of the current system by proposing the adoption of a rule that would require a geo-routing solution to be implemented for all wireless calls to the 9-8-8 Lifeline.
Specifically, the legislation would improve access to and the accuracy of 9-8-8 responses by:
Requiring the FCC to route calls based on the proximity of a caller to the call center, not their area code. The bill specifies that a caller’s specific location should not be revealed or discernible;
Instructing carriers to allow calls and texts to 9-8-8 even if their phone plan is inactive or the carrier is experiencing service interruptions or failures, just as they currently do for 911 calls; and,
Obligating multi-line systems like hotel and office phones to support the direct dialing of 9-8-8, rather than requiring a caller to dial 9 or another number before dialing 9-8-8.
Depression rates among adults and children have surged to record levels in recent years, perhaps associated with factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including loneliness and isolation, ever-growing inflation, political division, and conflicts and wars across the world.
In 2023, more than 100,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Over the past nine years, more than 13,000 North Carolinians have died from overdosing on the drug.
As of July, there were 1,884 suspected overdose deaths in North Carolina. Police suicides are a growing crisis across the US, including North Carolina. There are also increases in suicides in the agriculture industry across the US and in North Carolina.
The FCC is expected to vote on final rules to codify geo-routing on Oct 17.
If adopted next month, these new rules would build on SAMHSA’s announcement, requiring all US wireless carriers to implement geo-routing. In addition, the rules will also establish an implementation timeline for geo-routing calls to the 9-8-8 Lifeline of 30 days following the effective date of the rule for nationwide wireless providers and 24 months after the effective date of the rule for smaller, non-nationwide providers.
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