988 suicide hotline is getting more calls than ever. Many states have no clear plan to fund it

From Harvest Public Media:

Editor’s note: If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Brent Brewer has a passion for helping his fellow farmers and ranchers handle the stress that comes with agricultural work. He’s known around Oklahoma as someone you can call if you’re struggling with your mental health.

“This is a hobby of mine,” said Brewer, who farms and raises cattle in Grant County, Oklahoma. “To help people navigate through tough times and to try to get their legs back underneath them.”

Rural populations, particularly farmers, have a higher suicide rate than the general public. The unique stresses of working in agriculture can exacerbate symptoms of depression and anxiety – particularly when the economic situation is dire for farmers, like it is now.

Brewer is happy to hear anyone out, but he’s also quick to refer them to professional resources, including 988, the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

“I divert a lot of my calls. I like the 988 people to take them,” Brewer said.

But Brewer is also worried about whether the resource will get the financial support it needs to keep helping his neighbors.

Since it started taking calls in 2022, demand has increased for 988 nationwide.

Brent Brewer is a farmer and mental health advocate in north-central Oklahoma. Courtesy Brent Brewer

“We have been seeing a month over month increase in utilization of 988. And so we are also working pretty hard to keep up,” said Monica Kurz, chief administrative officer for Health Source Integrated Solutions in Kansas, one of the state’s 988 call centers.

The 988 system was designed to give people in crisis an easy-to-remember number that’s available 24 hours a day via call, text and chat. Every state has its own set of call centers with trained operators.

Kurz says the service is a necessity for rural Kansans.

“We know that in our rural and frontier counties in Kansas, folks might be traveling hours to get to their nearest mental health clinic. And this is a way to access services right away without that kind of distance barrier,” she said.

The federal government, which initiated the program four years ago, has largely paid for service. But the program was designed for states to eventually fund 988 on their own. Few states have plans in place to continually fund the critical service though. And as demand outpaces funding, some call centers are finding it hard to keep up.

“When you increase demand, you have to increase capacity to meet that demand,” said Jonathan Purtle, an associate professor at the New York University School of Global Public Health who studies 988 funding. “And to increase capacity, you need money.”

No sustainable funding

Responding quickly to an incoming call or text to 988 is essential, says Kurz of Kansas 988. Her goal is for the center to respond to a call within 20 seconds.

Kansas call centers were about six seconds slower than that last year, on average, but faster than the national average of 34 seconds, according to the most recent federal data available.

A caller frustrated with a long wait time might hang up. Plus, if they spend two minutes on hold, the call is re-routed from a local facility to a national backup center.

In-state operators often have a better understanding of local circumstances. This can be especially helpful for rural users.

“I think about some of the situations that we’ve had with fires out west in Kansas,” said Kurz. “And I don’t know that someone who’s sitting in a backup center has any idea of some of the stress that some of our western Kansas communities have been under when I think about things like those fires.”

A backup operator also may not be able to connect someone with local resources, said Lauren Moyer, chair of Missouri’s 988 task force.

“If someone is really struggling with substance use, and needs [to be] connected to a residential substance use bed in the moment, somebody from another state is not going to have access to that information,” Moyer said.

Having enough money to hire and train operators is critical to answering calls in a timely manner, experts say.

The federal government paid for the launch of 988, but states were expected to pick up the tab eventually. The federal bill that established the program recommended that states collect fees on telecommunication products, which is how 911 is largely funded.

“There’s no sustainable funding source for 988,” said Purtle, the NYU researcher. “The federal law…kind of suggests, ‘Hey states, here’s an idea about how you can fund it.’ And that idea is 988 telecom fees.”

Only a dozen states have created these fees, though. Missouri and Kansas are not among them, although their legislatures have dedicated revenue to the program out of their general funds.

Moyer of Missouri 988 worries about whether that’s sustainable.

“You know general revenue support, it’s its own line item [in the state budget] and that’s not guaranteed long-term,” she said.

‘The big thing is people’

Other states, like Texas, have yet to dedicate any state funding to 988 and are still relying solely on federal grants.

Jennifer Battle is vice president of the Harris Center in Houston, which fields 988 calls. She testified to the Texas House Public Health Committee in 2025 that the state’s call centers receive around 200,000 calls a year. Of those, 85% are resolved on the phone, without the need for additional resources like a mobile crisis unit.

“As impressive as these numbers are that we’re able to serve with the current federal funds, these funds only allow for us to be able to answer on average 84% of the 988 calls that originate in Texas,” Battle told lawmakers.

On average, operators at 988 call centers in Texas responded to contacts in 43 seconds last year, longer than average wait times nationally.

In Oklahoma, which has also seen steep increases in demand for 988 since the program’s inception, lawmakers haven’t approved fees to support it, either. According to State Rep. Kevin Norwood, a Republican from the Tulsa area, there’s little appetite in the state legislature for a new tax.

“Before I became a legislator, that idea was introduced and it gained no traction,” he said.

Norwood is now sponsoring a bill that would create a trust fund for 988 and ensure earmarked money is only used for the hotline.

“When I jumped into it I was like, ‘Okay, we need to make it where it’s not just a short-term fix. Where it would be long-term and sustainable,’” Norwood said.

Texas has followed a similar path. Lawmakers there have been unable to pass a telecommunications fee. In 2025, the state also established a trust fund, but the balance is currently zero.

Though it’s a “signal of effort,” said NYU researcher Jonathan Purtle, without actual investment in these state trust funds, the move is largely ineffective.

“Those trust funds are a strategy, but if there’s not funds in the trust fund, it’s not going to have that much of an impact,” said Purtle.

Purtle is near the end of a five-year study analyzing the funding of 988 systems in all 50 states. So far he’s found those with long-term, dedicated funding for staff are generally more efficient.

“The big thing is people, right? The staffing, the people who work in these call centers is the main thing,” he said.

He may have a new data point in the near future, as Missouri legislators consider a bill that would establish a 988 telecommunications fee.

Moyer of the state’s task force says there’s a “strong likelihood” the fee will be approved, providing long-term support for the hotline.

This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest and Great Plains, including Texas. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.