Counselors at the Green Bay nonprofit work to provide local access for people suffering from mental health crises across the state.ĭHS said there were around 1,000 more calls answered in July 2022 compared to April 2022. Those funds will allow Family Services to hire call counselors and expand their call center to deal with the increase in calls.
The state received a $1.7 million federal grant for the program, 85 percent of which will go to Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin. Former President Donald Trump signed it into law in 2020. Tammy Baldwin was one of four senators - two Democrats and two Republicans - who introduced the legislation. The lifeline, created through the National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act, has been years in the making. "We’ve been seeing these increases in contacts month to month far before 988 was really spoken about in public in Wisconsin, and so we are happy about that, we feel good about that," Crehan Neumann said. But she also said the lifeline had already been seeing monthly increases in use since December 2021. The center was able to answer about 4,400 of those calls, with the remaining calls sent to a backup center.Ĭaroline Crehan Neumann, the crisis services coordinator for DHS, said the 988 number is easy to remember and makes it simple for people to reach out for help.
With the change over to the three-digit 988 lifeline phone number, the center received 6,000 calls just in July, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. The call center, managed by Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin, used to average around 29,000 calls a year.
Wisconsin's 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is already seeing a big increase in callers one month after the launch of the new number.
0 kommentar(er)
