The Federal Communications Commission will vote next month to require all calls to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline be routed by wireless carriers to local call centers.
If approved, cellphone carriers would be required to use geo-routing to connect callers to the closest 988 call center to the caller’s physical location. Doing so is intended to streamline connections to local resources and broaden services.
“That means no more 988 calls and messages will be needlessly sent to crisis centers hundreds of miles away,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a call Tuesday with reporters. “Instead, if you contact 988, you can count on being connected with resources that are in your own backyard, and you can speak to someone in the community from where you’re calling.”
