More than 4 million people have called the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline since it launched last July. But a new poll from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) found that 82 percent of Americans remain unaware of the 911 alternative for mental health crises.
The Hill hosted a discussion with lawmakers, mental health experts and advocates Thursday about increasing awareness and capacity of the hotline.
“One point that often gets lost is that there has not been appropriations for an awareness campaign, so we can’t be surprised that awareness is low when we haven’t really invested in that wide-scale research and promotion,” Wesolowski said.
Wesolowski compared the potential campaign to smoking cessation campaigns, which required around $50 million to $100 million to “save lives” — though she said anything would have an impact.
