NAMI Applauds FCC Vote to Require Georouting of 988 Calls

Posted on October 17, 2024

Arlington, VA – Today, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) released the following statement from Chief Advocacy Officer Hannah Wesolowski following the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) decision to require all wireless carriers to implement georouting for calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline::

"Every person experiencing a mental health crisis deserves to be connected with the local support and resources that help them get well and stay well. NAMI applauds the FCC’s decision today to require calls to 988 to be routed by the caller’s approximate location, helping them better connect to crisis resources in their community.

"NAMI is grateful to Chairwoman Rosenworcel and the FCC Commissioners for listening to mental health advocates and taking this action to help people access local, lifesaving crisis support, while protecting callers’ privacy. We are appreciative of the FCC’s continued focus on strengthening 988 and helping every person in crisis get the help they need.”

Since 988 became available nationwide in July 2022, calls have been routed based on the help seeker’s area code. As a result, some people’s calls for help are routed to a call center that is not close to their physical location. While 988 crisis counselors can provide support regardless of a help seeker’s location, they may not be able to connect people in crisis to follow-up care within their local community. Georouting is a technological solution to route callers to the nearest call center based on their approximate location but, importantly, avoid disclosing a caller’s precise location and protect their privacy.

Just last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that two major telecommunications carriers, Verizon and T-Mobile, had voluntarily begun to route calls based on an approximate location. Today’s action takes this one step further – ensuring that georouting will be in effect for all calls to 988, regardless of which cell phone company a person uses. Nationwide wireless providers will have 30 days for implementation, while smaller, non-nationwide wireless providers will have 24 months for implementation. NAMI urges all U.S. carriers to act swiftly to help people within their networks access local crisis support. While today’s action is specific to phone calls to 988, the FCC also took the first steps today to explore georouting for texts to 988, as well.

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The National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness

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