Past-year contact incidence rate was 23.7 per 1,000 population and past-year 988 use prevalence was 1.6 percent
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, June 11, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Opportunities remain to increase use of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, according to a research letter published online June 9 in JAMA Network Open.
Jonathan Purtle, Dr.P.H., from the New York University School of Global Public Health in New York City, and colleagues calculated lifetime and past-year incidence rates of 988 contacts and estimated prevalence of 988 use at national, regional, and state-levels in a cross-sectional study. Monthly, state-level data on 988 contact volumes across all modalities were obtained for the 30 months after the launch of 988.
The researchers found that between July 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2024, 988 was contacted 16,333,707 times nationally, with 11.0 percent of contacts rerouted to the Veterans Crisis Line. Of all contacts, 70.1, 18.0, and 11.9 percent were calls, texts, and chats, respectively. The national lifetime 988 contact incidence rate was 48.9 per 1,000 population in the 30-month period, and the estimated lifetime 988 use prevalence was 2.4 percent. The corresponding past-year contact incidence rate and past-year prevalence was 23.7 per 1,000 population and 1.6 percent. The highest past-year 988 contact incidence rate was seen in the West, while the lowest was in the South (27.1 versus 20.0 per 1,000 population); findings were similar for the past-year estimate of 988 use prevalence (1.8 versus 1.3 percent).
“The past-year 988 contact rate of 23.7 per 1,000 is less than half that of the rate of adult emergency department visits that include a mental health diagnosis (53.0 per 1,000 population), [suggesting] that although 988 has been contacted more than 16 million times since its launch, there remains opportunity to increase 988 use,” the authors write.
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