Aspen Policy Academy

Accelerating Adoption of the 988 Mental Health Crisis Hotline

By Micah Mutrux

Every year, approximately 18 million calls are made to 911 that involve mental or behavioral health crises. The rapid, police-led response that 911 is optimized for is not well suited for these situations, as appropriate crisis care is typically beyond responders’ scope of practice. This policy brief recommends four low-cost technology interventions that states should take up to divert mental and behavioral health crisis calls from 911 to 988: the new 988 Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Hotline launching in July of 2022.

This brief was completed as part of a project for the 2021 Aspen Tech Policy Hub Fellowship, a program to teach technology experts how to impact policy.

View the Brief