A year after launching a crisis call line — 9-8-8 — New York state is promoting a 988 Community Education and Awareness Toolkit.

The toolkit is designed to support people facing suicide-risk; dialing 9-8-8 will connect a caller to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

New York’s 9-8-8 toolkit, developed by the state’s Office of Mental Health includes marketing and educational resources to help educate the public.

The call line was launched in July 2022 in all 62 counties in the state. In the first year of 9-8-8, New York has received well over 185,000 calls routed directly to the state’s 9-8-8 Contact Centers, according to an Aug. 4 release from the governor’s office.

This is nearly a 30-percent increase in annual call volume.

In June 2023, New York achieved around-the-clock in-state coverage for chat and text, marking full coverage for all modalities by the one-year launch anniversary, the release noted.

The state’s 2023 budget included $35 million to significantly expand 9-8-8 crisis call-center capacity throughout New York State. This funding will increase to $60 million on a full annual basis starting in 2024.

The 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline connects people experiencing a mental-health or substance-use crisis to a trained counselor who can address their immediate needs and help connect them to ongoing care.

It is meant to reduce health-care spending with more cost-effective early intervention, and also to reduce the use of law enforcement, public health, and other safety resources.

While meeting the growing need for crisis intervention, the Lifeline is also meant to help end stigma toward those seeking mental health care.

The 9-8-8 Lifeline, the governor’s office says, is helping to remove obstacles to accessing healthcare and reduce disparities for historically marginalized and underserved populations, including people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, older adults, rural New Yorkers, veterans, immigrants, people with disabilities, and people who have limited English proficiency.

“One simple call can be the difference between life and death,” Governor Kathy Hochul said in Friday’s release. “This new educational toolkit for schools, caregivers, and families in need builds on our ongoing public education campaign on the key signs and risks associated with suicide and gives New Yorkers the resources to address the mental health crisis our nation is facing.”

The toolkit suggests asking people if they know about 9-8-8 and even suggests “conversation starters” like: “Did you know there’s a new three-digit number for people who are struggling or feeling overwhelmed?”

It also asks people to: hang posters that can be downloaded from the toolkit at a workplace, store, library, apartment building, place of worship, or doctor’s office; get the word out on social media; share 9-8-8 resources with social and professional networks; and to “normalize talking about mental health.”

Since the launch in July 2022, there has been a lot of false information about 9-8-8 being shared on the internet, the toolkit says, setting the record straight with this information:

— 9-8-8 and 9-1-1 are separate service with separate contact centers; 

— 9-8-8 does not have the ability to track callers’ geographic location;

— 9-8-8 is for more than just suicidal crises. It is for any problem a person is having that causes them distress;

— 9-8-8 offers free and confidential emotional support. You will be connected to a trained counselor who will talk with you and offer you support if you choose to accept it;

— You do not need to provide personal information when you call 9-8-8. The counselor may ask for information, but you can decline to share if you don’t feel comfortable doing so;

— 9-8-8 is not the 9-1-1 for mental health. Rather than immediately sending services to you, 9-8-8 provides emotional support from trained crisis counselors;

— Currently, less than 2 percent of calls to 9-8-8 require police to be involved. This typically happens when there is imminent risk to someone’s life;

— 80 percent of calls to 9-8-8 are resolved over the phone. The other 20 percent usually require agreed-upon mobile crisis or other follow-up services.; and

— The people answering the 9-8-8 texts, chats, and calls are trained crisis counselors that receive extensive training and supervision, including how to respond to a crisis. 

People may call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org/chat.