When it becomes operational, the hotline will provide mental health support and ease pressure on the 911 line, which covers all emergencies.
The hotline would reduce stigma and save lives, said FCC chairman.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US and has increased by 33% in the past 20 years.
The proposal for the suicide hotline, which was unanimously approved by all five members of the commission, requires telephone providers to implement the 988 dial code within 18 months.
Read the entire article HERE
The special three-digit number assigned to this upcoming service is 988. But there’s one little problem; well, it’s kind of a big problem… the number 988 is already assigned as an area code in Michigan. How many people are going to have to change their phone number to make way for this new service? There are plenty of three-digit combinations that have not been assigned. 611 and 711 would be good possibilities, these two prefixes are not used widely. 611 is generally used for landline repair services by some telephone providers and 711 is used by some Government organization called the “North American Numbering Plan Administrator”.
I would not be surprised if by the time this service is ready to launch later this year, that an entirely new number would be assigned.
We talked about this and many other things in our most recent podcast episode. Check it out and give us a listen.