Underfunded Texas Suicide Hotline Leaves Vulnerable People Unheard

The Texas Suicide Hotline is facing a $7 million funding deficit, according to The Texas Tribune. And soon, the funding situation will likely become even more dire.

988, the federally mandated 3-digit hotline number relies on federal funds to operate (due to a lack of Medicaid reimbursement). The American Rescue Plan provided $1 billion to launch 988, however, those funds are running out.

Unless the federal government decides to pick the tab back up, individual states will have to provide the funding.

There are already too few centers and responders to calls in Texas. This causes some calls to be redirected to centers out of state, meaning there is more time for the suicidal person to "abandon" the call.

A person who feels abandoned by the world and utterly hopeless should not be left holding a phone while it rings and rings. They should be able to talk to a trained, caring person immediately.

According to the CDC, Texas experienced a suicide rate of 14.4 per 100,000 people in 2022 (the last year with available data). While that may not seem incredibly high, every person impacted by suicide will tell you that it is far too many people lost.

One funding solution would be to create a trust for 988- and one Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill to create it.  Senator José Menéndez introduced SB89 to create such a trust.

The trust's funds would be collected as a small surcharge of monthly cell phone bills and would allow for call centers to increase capacity, increase pay to counselors, and pay for tech services like text and chat.

While I understand that no one likes to be "nickel and dimed" this does seem like a necessary solution to a serious problem here in Texas.