Commissioners voted 4-0 Thursday on a plan from FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to require carriers to let their customers text the 988 short-code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It’s due to take effect July 16, 2022 — the same date the agency has set for carriers to roll out that dialing code nationally.
Lifeline is a national network that provides free, confidential support to Americans in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Nearly 45,000 individuals died by suicide in the U.S. in 2020, according to the Commission.
Several providers, including T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and AT&T Mobile have recently made 988 available to their customers ahead of this deadline, according to the FCC. CTIA commended the agency “for recognizing the critical role wireless when consumers need it most and taking steps to enhance access to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline,” said CTIA SVP Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann. “Consumers increasingly rely on text messaging, and text-to-988 will be a vital mental health resource, especially for at-risk Americans,” he said, and added the association will work with the Commission to implement the service.
During the vote, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr called suicide “a national tragedy. Any step that we can take to break down barriers to receiving the care that everybody needs is so important, probably one of the most important things we can do even in these jobs in the FCC.”
“Over the last two decades, the rate of suicide for young girls has tripled,” and there are “similar increases in suicide for black youth,” said FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. She noted that “LGBTQ youth are almost five times more likely to commit suicide as their heterosexual peers” and “young people who are deaf or hard of hearing are far more likely than their hearing peers to contemplate ending their own lives,” she emphasized.
Saying these young people deserve a future, Rosenworcel explained the 2nd R&O requires carriers to route texts sent to 988 to the Lifeline’s 10-digit number, 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). “We do this because we know that for millions of us, especially young people and those with disabilities — they are more likely to text than they are to call when they are in crisis. The bottom line is it should not matter when you make a voice call or send a text message, because we should connect people in crisis to the resources they need, no matter how they communicate.”
The rules in the Second Report and Order establish a process that will require providers to send the texts in formats that Lifeline can receive. The R&O finds that the FCC’s federal partners are best positioned to determine whether and how to text 988 for the Veterans Crisis Line’s text service.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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