National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Now 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline): Evaluation of Crisis Call Outcomes for Suicidal Callers.

INTRODUCTION

With the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline's expanding role in the crisis care continuum in the U.S., assessments of its effectiveness are more important than ever. The current study estimated the extent to which suicidal Lifeline callers perceived their crisis calls as helping them and stopping them from killing themselves, whether their suicidal thoughts recurred after the call, and the caller characteristics and counselor practices associated with these outcomes.

METHODS

Telephone interviews were conducted with 437 adult suicidal callers to 12 Lifeline crisis centers between April 15, 2020 and August 15, 2021. The interview collected callers' demographic and clinical characteristics and their perceptions of counselor practices and call outcomes. A series of logistic regression analyses assessed the association of caller characteristics and counselor practices with call outcomes.

RESULTS

The vast majority of suicidal Lifeline callers thought their crisis call helped them (nearly 98%) and stopped them from killing themselves (88.1%). Callers' perceptions of counselor behaviors in the domains of fostering engagement/connection, collaborative problem-solving, and safety assessment/management were strongly associated with callers' perceived effectiveness of the crisis call.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study offers empirical evidence for the effectiveness of the Lifeline's (now 988 Lifeline's) telephone crisis services from the caller's perspective.