Statewide, Iowa — The executive director of the Iowa chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness says while the 988 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has melted down in some other states, that hasn’t been the case here.
Peggy Huppert says that’s because the two crisis response services in eastern Iowa that have been handling 988 since it launched in July had been fielding suicide prevention calls and texts for some time.
Foundation 2 Crisis Services in Cedar Rapids is handling Iowa phone calls to 988. CommUnity Crisis Services in Iowa City is handling text messages to 988 and has been contracted to handle texts from other states that aren’t being answered quickly. Goals set for 988 include responding to a text or answering a phone call within 30 seconds. In July, the average pick-up time in Iowa was 18 second for phone calls.
Being able to text the 9-8-8 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is critical, according to Huppert.
CommUnity recently reported a 788 percent increase in the text messages it answers from Iowans and other states. CommUnity is a national back-up center for texts to the 988 National Suicide Prevention Hotline. Foundation 2 Crisis Services in Cedar Rapids answered more than 1,100 suicide hotline calls from Iowa in July. That’s 55 percent above the monthly average from January through June.
