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The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline announced that the process to start routing cellular phone calls to 988 contact centers based on the caller’s approximate location, versus by area code — known as “georouting” — began last week with two major U.S. wireless carriers that combined make up about half of all wireless calls to 988. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the 988 Network Administrator, Vibrant Emotional Health, have been working with all of the major U.S. cell phone carriers for more than a year to improve call routing to 988 so that callers on a cell phone can be connected more locally to centers that are better equipped to provide nearby resources and services.
“The launch of 988 georouting marks a significant leap forward in our nation’s crisis response system,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “With georouting in place, callers will be connected to 988 crisis contact centers closer to where they are, which will help us to more quickly connect people to local services and resources when they need additional on the ground support.” Click here to continue reading the announcement.
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