GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Wisconsin is seeing an increase in people asking for mental health help.
Health officials say calls to the state’s suicide and crisis lifeline have skyrocketed since the number changed to 988.
When someone in Wisconsin calls 988 for help, the phone rings at Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin.
It’s the call center for the entire state’s crisis hotline, and calls have picked up in the past year.
“I like to look at it instead of saying that mental health is getting worse, that there’s more people who are getting connected to the resources they need and getting the help and support that they need,” said Shelly Missall, program manager of Wisconsin Lifeline.
Monday afternoon, Senator Tammy Baldwin and Governor Tony Evers made a trip to the call center in Green Bay to discuss the hotline since its launch last July.
“We’ve always had suicide prevention lines. They were unmemorable, 10 digit numbers that people just didn’t have at the moment when the crisis was there,” said Sen. Baldwin.
“Clearly, the pandemic showed us that it has been an issue but frankly, I think it’s been an issue that’s been ignored also,” said Gov. Evers.
The Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin covers all 72 counties.
Missall says call counselors staff the center 24/7.
“We’ve anticipated the growth in calls and so we’ve been anticipatory in our hiring practices as well,” said Missall. “So we’ve been building capacity and adding staff at a rate that would keep up with the anticipated growth.”
In 2021, the call center answered 1,100 calls a month. After 988 federal legislation passed in July, the call volume increased to 4,500 per month. In January 2023, the call center took 5,000 calls, which is the average total of calls a month.
“We have a huge array of resources so we do partner with 211 and their entire database pulls into our database, so we have all the 211 resources and we have all that information that we can share out as well,” said Missall.
While 988 is a suicide hotline, Missall says it’s not always the main reason people are calling or texting. It’s also a crisis hotline.
“The reality is, only about 25%-30% of our calls actually pertain to suicide or homicide so 75% of our calls are the other stuff that’s going on in people’s lives, ‘I’m having difficulty at school, I’m having job issues, relationship issues,'” said Missall.
On average, Wisconsin callers waited 23 seconds for an answer after listening to an automated greeting and spent more than 14 minutes talking to a counselor.
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