988 Lifeline is Georgia’s front door to mental health support

Anyone who is experiencing a mental health crisis, or simply needs someone to talk to, can call or text 988 or chat online. It’s free, confidential and available 24/7.

When the situation necessitates, 988 can also dispatch a mobile crisis team anywhere in Georgia. Those teams reached more than 21,000 people last year alone, and we’re currently averaging 1,700 mobile crisis dispatches per month.

Most people know 988, but we continue to raise awareness

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Our call-takers are also connecting citizens to providers who take insurance or to more than a dozen state-funded Behavioral Health Crisis Centers. In 2025, Georgia’s crisis system coordinated more than 50,000 referrals to crisis beds, averaging 4,200 each month.

Every crisis bed referral means one less emergency room bed taken up, or one less Georgian waiting for mental health services they desperately need, or one less person held in jail for a mental health issue.

Data demonstrates that Georgia’s 988 call centers are becoming a trusted source for real support.

In 2025, the state’s call centers handled more than 350,000 calls, texts and chats. Today, Georgia’s 988 operations are outpacing previous years. Approximately 1,000 interactions are being answered in state every day, and clinicians are responding quickly with answer speeds averaging less than 15 seconds.

Three in four people who know about 988 would recommend it, so we’re continuing to raise awareness where it’s needed most. For instance, construction workers have the highest suicide rate of any occupation in Georgia.

Through the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities’ campaign, 988 awareness among Georgia construction workers is now 67%, which is higher than the general population and the national average, and 72% of construction workers are comfortable referring their co-workers to 988.

Ga. Legislature advances bill to lift mental health system

As a father, I also talk to my own kids about this line, and I encourage every parent to do the same. A recent national study published in JAMA showed that in the first two and a half years of 988, nearly 4,400 fewer American teens and young adults died by suicide than projected. The resource is saving young lives.

State leaders are investing in a system designed to serve our growing population. Gov. Brian Kemp and the Georgia General Assembly recently set aside $5 million for 988 and mobile crisis services. In the past five years, we’ve invested in five new behavioral health crisis centers in high-need areas, including new facilities in Fulton County and Augusta, with additional centers planned in Dublin, Clayton County and North Fulton.

Since 2019, the state has invested in programs to keep vulnerable people from falling through the cracks, such as Medicaid provider rate increases, co-responder programs and more community-based settings for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The Legislature has advanced bipartisan bills to lift the entire system, including the historic Georgia Mental Health Parity Act of 2022 (House Bill 1013). Most recently, the state committed $409 million for a new 300-bed hospital building to address the backlog of individuals in local jails waiting for hospital-based mental health services.

We’ve made significant strides, but our mission continues. Help is here, and it works. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988. You might just save a life.

Kevin Tanner is the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and chair of the Georgia Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission.

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