A new study shows that simplifying the national crisis hotline number helped reduce suicide deaths among young people. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline replaced the longer 1-800-273-Talk number in 2022. This change came with a $1.5 billion effort to boost crisis center resources across the country.
Since the 988 number launched, suicide deaths among young adults and youth have dropped by 11 percent. This means 4,372 lives were saved compared to what was expected based on previous trends.
A Rare Success Story
Vishal Patel, the lead author of the study, called it "one of those rare good-news stories in public health." The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in April.
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Start Your News DetoxPatel, a surgical resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School, explained that the hotline's impact seemed small at first. This was when researchers looked at all age groups together.
However, when they focused on data for people aged 15 to 34, they found a significant decline. This age group includes teenagers, who are at high risk. The positive results for this group were hidden when combined with other age groups.
In 2010, about 11 suicides per 100,000 people were reported in this age group. By 2022, this number had climbed to nearly 18 per 100,000. Three years after 988 started, the rate fell to about 15 per 100,000.
Adults aged 65 and older also saw a drop in suicide deaths, with a 4.5 percent decrease.
Funding and Impact
Patel and his team became interested in studying the hotline after its federal funding was partly cut in July. These cuts affected specialized services for LGBTQ+ adults, a high-risk group that made up about 10 percent of callers. Patel wanted to see if the cuts were due to poor performance.
The researchers gathered data from the National Vital Statistics System for their analysis. They found that states with bigger increases in calls to 988 also saw larger drops in suicide deaths.
For example, the 10 states with the biggest call increases (146.2 percent more calls) also had an 18.2 percent decline in suicide deaths. In contrast, the 10 states with the smallest call increases (23.6 percent more calls) saw a smaller 10.6 percent decline.
To confirm their findings, researchers compared U.S. suicide rates to those in the United Kingdom over the same three years. The U.K. did not change its intervention policies and did not see similar reductions in deaths.
Patel concluded, "This is an intervention that seems to be working, so it’s one of those things that should continue to receive funding, not one we should start to scale back."
