How the New 988 Hotline Works

Fifty years ago, most people believed that you could not prevent suicide, explains Dr. Madelyn Gould, Professor of Epidemiology in Psychiatry, Columbia University, but today, partly because of her ground-breaking research, we know that suicide IS preventable. And one of the most effective crisis responses is the new national 988 Hotline. The vast majority of people who call asking for help say that just twenty minutes of conversation, on average, stopped them from killing themselves. Dr. Gould explains why and how the 988 Hotline is so effective and urges young people (and their parents) to use this resource to keep them safe during a crisis.