Establishing a service of such critical importance requires care and consideration, our primary concern is ensuring we develop a pilot that will eliminate barriers and provide affirming support to LGBTQIA + populations.

John Draper

When a person reaches that line, the first thing that a counselor does is listen to them and help them feel understood. We're all humans…and since we were born, and we're in distress, the first thing we're looking for is comfort — human comfort — and that's the first thing that people receive when they contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Everybody is interested in making sure we can shift…what has been historically a public safety response to mental health emergencies to a public health response to mental health emergencies, because police don't want to be responding to mental health emergencies unnecessarily, and neither does EMS. Those resources should be reserved for public safety circumstances or medically dangerous circumstances, and that is very rarely the case with mental health crises.

SAMHSA is first focused on strengthening and expanding the existing Lifeline network, providing life-saving service to all who call, text or chat via 988, longer-term, SAMHSA recognizes that linking those in crisis to community-based providers -- who can deliver a full range of crisis care services -- is essential to meeting behavioral health crisis needs across the nation.