The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center is actively working with partners at the Department of Health and Human Services and Boys Town to continue to improve protocols and services and raise awareness of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
The 988 number — modeled after 911 — replaced the 10-digit suicide hotline number nationally in July 2022. It is a national number but managed by individual states. Calls, texts and online chats in Nebraska are routed to the state’s call center at Boys Town in Omaha.
Those in a mental health or substance use crisis can use 988, which can also serve as an entry point to find resources and services in the caller’s area.
Denise Bulling, senior research director with PPC, said the 988 launch has been successful but there is more work to do. Since the launch, researchers at the Public Policy Center have been working with DHHS and Boys Town to improve the continuum of care.
“We’re still developing the mobile crisis response,” Bulling said. “We have quite a bit of it in place, but we’re working to make that more consistently available across the state.”
Mobile crisis response teams are dispatched when needed and wanted, either in person or virtually, for callers to 988, similar to dispatching police, fire or rescue when a 911 call is made.
“988 is a system — it’s more than just a phone line,” Bulling said. “There are other elements wrapped in, and a lot of ways we’re working to prevent suicide, related to 988.”
The Public Policy Center has worked on suicide prevention campaigns for youth and is a partner with Nebraska LOSS, or Local Outreach to Suicide Loss Survivors, the state’s Suicide Prevention Coalition and others.
This month, which is Suicide Prevention Month in the United States, PPC and its suicide prevention partners are launching a new campaign to remind Nebraskans there is help through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, with a specific focus on messaging to men in rural areas. The campaign is part of a strategy to reduce suicide rates in Nebraska through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that will be in place through 2027.
Public health data reported to DHHS found that men have a suicide rate nearly twice the state average, and rural men are dying by suicide at a rate nearly 2.5 times more than their urban counterparts.
“We’ve been working together to use the data to help drive our prevention efforts, and we’ve identified disproportionately affected populations in Nebraska, with higher suicide rates,” Bulling said. “There were several in Nebraska, but one that is particularly disproportionate, and has not received as much attention, is men aged 25-64, and especially men in rural areas.”
The campaign, which is running through December, will employ TV and radio placements, YouTube ads, digital audio on Spotify, and ads in print materials and on social media.
Bulling said one of the next steps in fully implementing 988 is partnering with 911 dispatch centers to introduce protocols for when a 911 caller should be transferred to 988. The Nebraska Legislature passed a law that asked the state to put in standards for transferring those calls. The protocols have been written and are being piloted in some Nebraska communities, Bulling said. The protocol was initially fielded in Lancaster County.
“We’re piloting protocols in each Behavioral Health Region,” she said. “We have pilot locations doing the warm transfers from 911 to 988. The protocols allow them to make that distinction. Those state standards have to be in place by January, according to state law.”
Bulling said the Public Policy Center is a part of many suicide prevention efforts and heralded the work of many partners throughout the state.
“We’re consistently building on all the things we’ve done with our partners before,” she said. “The bulk of the prevention work is happening through our partners in their communities. Our role is to make it possible for data to be used to drive those activities and help us all to see that these efforts are making a difference.”
