It's been nearly two years since the federal mandate making the 988 suicide prevention and mental health crises hotline accessible nationwide took effect July 16, 2022.
The Cincinnati Emergency Communications Center and Talbert House say they're working well together when calls to 911 and 988 overlap. Talbert House operates the 988 crisis hotline in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. (It also serves as a back-up location for other call centers across Ohio.)
"In the last year that we've been partnered, some of the changes that we've been seeing is just being able to go ahead and connect callers with the best type of help," says Karli Piper, CECC deputy director. "This has just allowed us to go ahead and connect callers with trained mental health providers to help de-escalate situations where we have callers in crisis, and an alternative to having to send out that traditional public safety response."
The Cincinnati Emergency Communications Center, which is separate from the Hamilton County Communication Center (911), answers approximately 350,000 911 calls annually, Piper tells WVXU. Overall, the center answers around a million calls when you factor in 311 (the city's non-emergency customer service line) and other non-emergency calls.
RELATED: 988 mental health crisis line gets 5 million calls, texts and chats in first year
Piper says the city's dispatchers trained with Talbert House to better recognize a potential mental health crisis call and best practices in how to offer 988 as a resource. The 911 center is also equipped to smoothly connect a caller with 988. The CECC reports there have been 116 transfers to 988 from the date range 3/6/2023 - 6/26/2024.
"When callers call 911 and they're reporting that they're thinking of hurting themselves or reporting that they're in crisis, our call-takers are going in and assessing current safety situations, and then offering 988 as a resource — explaining what that is — and then getting that caller's consent to go ahead and bring 988 on the line," Piper explains.
She offers this story as an example of one way the two agencies worked together to help someone in crisis:
"We had a person that called and had relayed that they were contemplating suicide. They were standing at an intersection and thinking about walking into traffic, and ... background noises indicated that they were somewhere at a very busy intersection. So (the call-taker) initiated that traditional public safety response because of those safety concerns, but (to) help de-escalate that caller in the moment, they actually brought 988 on the line to go ahead and help talk to the caller and de-escalate until public safety had arrived on scene. We were able to keep that caller safe as a team, which was pretty incredible."
RELATED: Cincinnati's 911 center adds additional protocols
Piper notes that 988 does not roll over to 911. Like Talbert House, other crisis centers pick-up any calls not answered by local call-takers. Talbert House's 988 line is staffed 24/7.
"I think the biggest misconception could be that there's a fear when people call 988 that they're going to get arrested when we are transferring to 988. Talbert House has been able to share that actually 3% of their total calls that they take and where they end up needing that traditional public safety response. So that means 97% of the time they're able to go ahead and de-escalate a situation and get somebody to safety and set them up with ongoing support, without needing that public safety law enforcement response," she says.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
