{"id":52444,"date":"2022-08-05T02:02:45","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T09:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=52444"},"modified":"2023-02-27T12:41:08","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T20:41:08","slug":"for-mental-health-crises-dialing-988-while-imperfect-better-than-calling-911","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/for-mental-health-crises-dialing-988-while-imperfect-better-than-calling-911\/","title":{"rendered":"988 mental health hotline may be flawed, but it\u2019s safer than calling 911"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[Mara Cavallaro is El Tecolote\u2019s Report for America Corps Member who reports on mental health & healthcare inequality in the Latinx community.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a Wednesday afternoon in August, five in-person phone operators wait for a call to Alameda Crisis Support Services in Oakland. It\u2019s one volunteer\u2019s second day, and another\u2019s 24th year. They sit at lime green desk chairs, except for Linsey Parecadan, this shift\u2019s supervisor, who sits on the couch she used to sleep on when she worked the \u201covernight\u201d\u2014a 4AM to noon stretch. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Volunteers staff the crisis line at Crisis Support Services of Alameda\nCounty in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Photo: Florence Middleton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Now, due to the pandemic, most crisis line responders work from home. The bright room is quiet, apart from soft conversation and the periodic BART train. And then, the phone rings. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Linsey Parecadan serves as shift lead at Crisis Support Services of\nAlameda County. Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Photo: Florence Middleton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the two weeks following implementation of 988 as the National Suicide Prevention Hotline number, average weekly calls to Alameda CSS, one of six 988 call centers in the Bay Area, have increased by about 30 percent. Average daily talk time has also gone up, and hovers around 8 hours and 45 minutes. Simultaneously, however, social media has been flooded with concerns about the mental health hotline\u2019s involvement of police and questions about how it operates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you read nothing else in this article, let it be this: In cases of mental health crisis, 988 is a safer phone number to call than 911. You will be connected with trained mental health responders. However, for about 0.67 percent of all calls to Alameda CSS, or 30 percent of \u201chigh-risk\u201d calls, know that law enforcement will likely get involved. This happens with or without consent in cases of \u201cimminent risk,\u201d or when someone is likely to die soon, according to the call center. Nationally, that number is a bit higher: the lifeline reported that around two percent of calls to 988 involve emergency services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving Away from Carceral Care<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it currently exists, the American healthcare system is designed to address mental health crises with carceral \u2018care,\u2019 or psychiatric responses that surveil and police. Stories about law enforcement intimidating, harming, or killing folks during a crisis\u2014or about people being involuntarily hospitalized or institutionalized\u2014demonstrate the inherent violence of this approach. They also reveal the flaws of health policy that prioritizes force and control over peer-led, caring intervention. And, as is often the case, marginalized groups are at greater risk of harm. A recent study <\/a>found Black people were nearly three times as likely as their white peers to be forcibly admitted to psychiatric hospitals. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Naomi, a volunteer, carefully listens to a caller on the crisis line in Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Photo: Florence Middleton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Callers, mental health professionals, and suicidologists all emphasize that police should not be responding to mental health crises. But in most areas, including Alameda County, there are no 24\/7 dispatch alternatives yet. In Oakland, only two mobile crisis response teams, Community Assessment and Transport (CATT) and Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO) operate seven days a week. Both work from 7am to 11pm. \u201cIt\u2019s not enough,\u201d Parecadan said. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Volunteers working at the crisis center are equipped with stress balls and phone numbers to refer callers to other support services. Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Photo: Florence Middleton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When CATT responds to crises, officers join clinicians on-scene. MACRO, according to its impact report from April 9 to July 15, \u201ccompleted\u201d 99 percent of its calls. Three calls\u2014or .001 percent of total calls\u2014were transferred to police. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suicidologist Dr. Emily Krebs, who tweeted concerns about 988<\/a>, told El Tecolote <\/em>that to truly prioritize safety, there should be \u201cprogramming that\u2019s totally separate from law enforcement.\u201d\u00a0As of now, two major 24\/7 lifelines, BlackLine<\/a> and the Trans Lifeline <\/a>do not involve police, ever. The Trans Lifeline website reads, \u201cwhile intended as a last resort on many hotlines, in practice [nonconsensual emergency responder interventions] are too readily used\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Thoughts from a suicidologist on the new 988 crisis hotline:
1. Having a simple number is good.
2. Having more trained crisis teams is good.
2. It's still linked to nonconsensual active rescue which means they can & will trace your call & send police if they deem it necessary.<\/p>\n

— E Krebs, PhD🧂 (@SaltySicky) July 17, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n