New poll finds many are still unfamiliar with 988 crisis hotline

A poll conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness found that many Americans are still unfamiliar with 988, the suicide and crisis lifeline. At the same time, the number of people experiencing a mental health crisis is on the rise.

Since coming online two years ago, 988 has had 10 million contacts, or individuals from across the U.S., who actually called the number. That’s the good news, says Kristina Sabetta, the executive director of NAMI Valley of the Sun.

"One of the issues is we're not talking about 988 as much as we could be," Sabetta said. "We need to make sure that our community is educated, that 988 is there for suicide in crisis, just like if were in an emergency, a car accident, you would call 911, right?"

The other issue comes down to area codes, she said.

"Right now, if you call 988 from a phone number that is different than your physical location, you’ll be routed to a crisis call center based on that area code," Sabetta said.

Unlike 911 calls, she said.

"Which means I’m not going to be connected to those local resources and have that warm handoff to local resources like I could be if I were routed to call centers based on my actual, physical location," Sabetta said.

NAMI continues to urge the Federal Communications Commission to route calls to the closest critical care in their own local community.

Another goal of NAMI is to make sure 988 can be called from a hotel without having to dial out.