Starting Saturday, Americans can dial 988 to get help for urgent mental health care and suicidal thoughts, when the new national three-digit hotline will open.
The new three-digit dialing code is designed to be as easy to use as dialing 911 for emergencies that require police, firefighters, or paramedics, except 988 dispatchers will connect callers with trained mental health counselors.
Dr. Brian Hepburn, a psychiatrist who heads the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, called it “one of the most exciting things that has happened” in mental health care, The Associated Press reported.
But he cautioned that 988 will “take a number of years in order for us to be able to reach everybody across the country.”…