Free Crisis Support in US

[[Li...]]

Are you (or someone you know) experiencing a mental health, substance use, or suicide crisis?  Launched nationwide in the United States on July 16, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline offers free, confidential, immediate crisis intervention and support from trained crisis counselors.

 

Dial or text “988” or chat at:

 

https://988lifeline.org/chat/

 

To learn more about the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, read the 988 FAQ from NAMI at:

 

https://nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/PDFs/NAMI-FAQs-for-Nationwide-Availability-of-988.pdf

[[Ju...]]

I used the United States crisis number at least a dozen times from 2015 until 2019, and they were never of any help. All they did was send an ambulance, drive me to the behavioral health hospital, take my vitals, and leave me sitting in a chair for a couple days. About nine times out of 10 they would discharge me back home like nothing never happened, and didn't even follow the 72-hour rule required in the United states. Several years later and currently, I have a lawsuit filed against them.

[[Pa...]]

I used the United States crisis number at least a dozen times from 2015 until 2019, and they were never of any help. All they did was send an ambulance, drive me to the behavioral health hospital, take my vitals, and leave me sitting in a chair for a couple days. About nine times out of 10 they would discharge me back home like nothing never happened, and didn't even follow the 72-hour rule required in the United states. Several years later and currently, I have a lawsuit filed against them.

 

According to the above post, this is a new service, it came online July 16, 2022.  Did you read the accompanying attachments to the post, the services being offered look very helpful.

[[Ju...]]

Hey, yes I read it all. It's the same thing as 911 or 211 or mobile crisis or any of those other mental health related services, it's always the same thing. Basically long story short, you always have some kind of call center crisis trained support person on the phone, who in turnalways notifies the authorities. And then what happens, is either a social worker or the police or fire department come out to talk to you. If they think you're a risk, they admit you involuntarily for 72 hours at least. After being in the mental hospital and going to treatment teams and social workers and seeing the doc a few times, they discharge you.

 

As for all of the other stuff they're talking about, that's just normal 211 referrals to things like Salvation Army or food pantries or local legal aid and shelters and housing authorities and that type of stuff. It's all basically the same Services you would receive if you went to a local Social Services office.

 

While all of those things sound great on paper, They Don't Really Work Well in reality. Nine times out of 10 you have to be disabled to get those services for free, otherwise you don't qualify. And if you do qualify, there's usually a several year wait list for things like housing or housing vouchers. And if you can get into a mental health therapist or doctor, it usually takes a couple months as well. They usually only do an intake assessment first, and then they do the comprehensive clinical assessment about a month later, and then you don't even see the psychiatrist for another month after that.

 

The other issue is whenever people are having a mental crisis, they need help right then and there and they need a resolution right away. The social worker at the hospital and the social workers at the treatment teams doing all of the coloring books and deep breathing, they don't solve anything outside of the hospital. So when it comes time for discharge, it's basically back to survival tactics.

[[Pa...]]

Hey, yes I read it all. It's the same thing as 911 or 211 or mobile crisis or any of those other mental health related services, it's always the same thing. Basically long story short, you always have some kind of call center crisis trained support person on the phone, who in turnalways notifies the authorities. And then what happens, is either a social worker or the police or fire department come out to talk to you. If they think you're a risk, they admit you involuntarily for 72 hours at least. After being in the mental hospital and going to treatment teams and social workers and seeing the doc a few times, they discharge you.

 

As for all of the other stuff they're talking about, that's just normal 211 referrals to things like Salvation Army or food pantries or local legal aid and shelters and housing authorities and that type of stuff. It's all basically the same Services you would receive if you went to a local Social Services office.

 

While all of those things sound great on paper, They Don't Really Work Well in reality. Nine times out of 10 you have to be disabled to get those services for free, otherwise you don't qualify. And if you do qualify, there's usually a several year wait list for things like housing or housing vouchers. And if you can get into a mental health therapist or doctor, it usually takes a couple months as well. They usually only do an intake assessment first, and then they do the comprehensive clinical assessment about a month later, and then you don't even see the psychiatrist for another month after that.

 

The other issue is whenever people are having a mental crisis, they need help right then and there and they need a resolution right away. The social worker at the hospital and the social workers at the treatment teams doing all of the coloring books and deep breathing, they don't solve anything outside of the hospital. So when it comes time for discharge, it's basically back to survival tactics.

 

Did you call the number?  Have you used this new service?  I find it sad that you went out of your way to discourage folks from taking advantage of this, those who may be desperate.  I know you have a lot of experience with law enforcement and mental health services but if you haven't personally used this one I don't think you should comment, your input is not helpful.

[[Ju...]]

It's not new, it's just rebranded to an easier number to memorize. Like I was explaining, it's the exact same thing as we used to have, only they made it into an easier to remember phone number so that people can remember it in emergency situations. It's the exact same thing as calling 211 or calling 911 trying to get mental services, the most you're going to get is an inpatient stay and possible resources that might come along months later.

[[ga...]]

It's not new, it's just rebranded to an easier number to memorize. Like I was explaining, it's the exact same thing as we used to have, only they made it into an easier to remember phone number so that people can remember it in emergency situations. It's the exact same thing as calling 211 or calling 911 trying to get mental services, the most you're going to get is an inpatient stay and possible resources that might come along months later.

 

Sadly, he's right about this. It's not a new service. It's just a new way to route calls to local crisis centers. In my experience, local crisis centers are a crap shoot. Unless a person wants an ambulance or squad car at their door, they are better off finding and keeping handy the number of a peer support warmline.

 

[[Ju...]]

Exactly, thank you. The only time I've ever literally needed emergency mental Services was when I was homeless in the middle of downtown, because the time I was highly suicidal because of substances and needed a ambulance to pick me up and bring me to the mental hospital. Other than that, every other occurrence in my life when I needed mental Services I was much better off getting outpatient treatment.

 

The problem with these call centers and these numbers for people, is the people who pick up the phone are not Medical professionals. They are trained call centers. I've actually had this discussion with the call support people at these crisis lines, and all they ever do is say "that must be horrible, that must be really hard, I can imagine that would be tough", and things such as that. They are actually banned from giving medical advice, so the most you're going to get is some call center representative agreeing with everything that you say. The only time they might disagree is if you say you're suicidal, then what they will do is say "we want you to be safe and to get you the care you need", and then they send you over an ambulance or police officers. Problem is for most people, that results in an inpatient stay and forced medications and useless discharge plan, after coloring in books and telling people your triggers and going over coping skills with lots of other patients for about a week or two, only to get discharged to outpatient treatment, the place you should have looked in the first place.

 

Plus, what defines an emergency? Really bad anxiety, bad depression, girlfriend or boyfriend dying, family member got hurt, lost a job? You have to remember, the people at crisis lines can't control your life, all they can do is try to calm you down and get you into a mental hospital.

 

Now like I stated before, if you are about to kill yourself and you have a gun or a knife in your hand, or you're about to jump off of a building or lay on the train tracks, that would be a different scenario. We are not allowed to talk about suicide on this website because of the benzo Buddies rules, but I can say that stuff happens from time to time as well. Now if you are in a dire need situation where you're about to die if you don't get mental treatment, then maybe it really would help to talk to one of these crisis call center people. But those types of calls are far and few between, like maybe 1% of the mental health emergencies.

 

The other issue is that social workers can't force benefits out of the government, all they do is have referrals. Either you qualify or you don't. Same thing with doctors, they can't magically make you better, all they can do is basically give you a referral to a pill called a prescription. These types of things such as prescriptions and benefits might help you, but it's essentially still up to you to figure them out and follow through with them.

 

If you seriously think about everything really hard and look at every angle, you're much better off going to an outpatient provider and talking to a social worker to figure out what benefits you might qualify for. Talking to a call center representative isn't going to accomplish anything, when you could have just called an ambulance in the first place.

 

This isn't to deter anybody from getting help, it's just the hard truth. The United States is horrible with mental treatment, Plus what if you don't have insurance and they take you to the hospital? Do you really want to ruin your credit just because you had some anxiety? Do you really want to get stuck with thousands of dollars of medical bills just because you were depressed and wanted to talk to somebody? That's the reality of america.