988 What it means for Suicide Prevention : A Public Health Intervention .

     Federal Communication Commission Ajit Pai has proposed rule making to establish a new nation wide three digit phone number for a Suicide Prevention and Mental Health Hotline (FCC,2019) . The suicide rate in the United States is at its highest level since World War II , and designated 988 as the suicide prevention and mental health hotline . The problem that lead to this change is in the number which existed and were not a good fit for the setting nor the scenario in which suicide attempts usually play out .

      The telephone number used by persons in crisis was 1800-273-TALK or 1800-273-8255 , first we can notice that the number is to long , next we can appraise that the number is difficult to remember , and it is also time consuming . In addition to this where is the telephone number for Def Mute persons? or should we in public health assume that the def mute do not commit suicide ? . More than 20 Veterans commit suicide every day , between the year 2008 and 2016 there were more than 6,000 veterans who committed suicide (FCC,2019). "' According to the CDC : LGBTQ youth contemplate suicide at a rate almost three times higher than heterosexual youth and more than 500,000 LGBTQ youth will attempt suicide this year"".   Recognizing the need to ease access to potentially life saving resource congress tasked the FCC with analyzing the effectiveness of the current National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

      This takes priority when evaluating the rate of suicide among the elderly population . Our population is aging approximately 75 million Americans will be over the age of 65 by the year 2030 . Additionally a 2012 study from the Institute of Medicine found that approximately one in five alder adults experience a mental health illness , substance use disorder or both . If this ratio still exists by the year 2030 it will accrue to be approximately 15 million people .
As it stands this year there were approximately 19% of the aging population between the ages of 55-65 who committed suicide and,  20 % over the age of 85.  988 when dialed connects aswell to the police department and the fire department in a collaborative effort to mitigate suicide attempts and suicide prevention .


References

FCC(2019) Report on the National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act of 2018 .Federal Communication Commission USA

Retrieved from http://www.docs.fcc.gov/public/attachment/DOC-359095.pdf