COLORADO, USA — Coloradans in crisis have called the new 988 hotline nearly 57,000 times since it launched last summer, but how well the state is doing at answering the calls depends on where the data comes from.
The crisis hotline debuted across the country in mid-July 2022 as a three-digit lifeline for people in crisis. "It's giving permission for folks to understand that your pain is valid, your struggle is real and there is someone here that is trained to be here to support you," said Kelly Bowman, who manages the 988 program in Colorado.
Bowman said the state's contractor, Rocky Mountain Crisis Partners, has gotten better at answering the calls -- in part because of resources 988 funding has allowed.
"We went from 59% [answered locally] in June of 2022 and we were at 94% June of 2023," Bowman said.
But national data tells a different story. It said Colorado only answered 78% of calls locally in June -- sending the rest to get answered by backup centers in other states. The Kaiser Family Foundation found Colorado 13th worse in the nation this spring.
"We were discouraged to see those numbers come out, but what we learn from that is let's spend more time having conversations to figure out why these numbers aren't matching," Bowman said.
She said many states have had issues with national data not aligning their own information. In a statement, the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration said the federal government has been working with the 988 provider, Vibrant Emotional Health to fix the issue. "With the support of the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, Vibrant Emotional Health has implemented a 'Data Variance Process' that provides states and their local 988 lifeline centers to explore the origin of the data variances each month."
"When someone has the courage to reach out for help, it is our responsibility to answer that," Bowman said.
But routing callers to the correct crisis center has been a national challenge as well, she said. Calls to 988 automatically route to the crisis call center closest to the area code of the phone number calling. That can cause calls from transplants living in Colorado to route to call centers in other states that may be unfamiliar with local resources.
Hiring and maintaining workers to answer the phones has also been a nationwide challenge, she said. Getting the word out about the still-new helpline awaiting people who need it is an ongoing opportunity.
"988 is hope. 988 is someone you can talk to in a moment of need. And we're going to respond and we're going to answer," Bowman said.
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