Outage Puts Suicide Prevention HotLine In Trouble
(RepublicanNews.org) – In 2021, 47,646 people died of suicide, according to a CDC report released on September 30, 2022. It’s become such a large problem nationwide that two organizations — Vibrant Emotional Health and the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — established the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline on January 1, 2005. People who need help can call 988 and speak to someone before they decide to take drastic action like taking their own life. However, on Thursday, December 1, the lifeline went down for hours — and nobody knows why.
The problem started around 10 a.m. on Thursday, according to a since-deleted message on the hotline’s website. Callers who dialed the number reached a recorded message stating the hotline was down, and they were working to fix it. Even so, all was not lost. People could still reach someone to talk to either by texting the same number or through an online chat. The Department of Veterans Affairs held a press conference and offered another solution for veterans who needed immediate help.
At midnight on December 2, the hotline was back up and running.
Following a nationwide network outage at Intrado, call service has resumed to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
If you’re in crisis and need support, please call or text 988 or chat with us at https://t.co/LOZkg9low7. Veterans can call 988 and press 1.
— 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (@988Lifeline) December 2, 2022
There is currently no answer as to why the hotline went down. However, it’s run by Intrado, a telecommunications company, which acknowledged it was experiencing an “incident” on its website, according to The Hill. The company did not respond to any requests for comment, but a banner on its website as of December 4 shows it is continuing to work on restoring other services.
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