Crisis center First Link urges funding to meet surge in 988 volumes, requests 8–10 staff

Jennifer Illich, executive director of First Link, told the House Appropriations Committee’s Human Resources Division that 988 (the national suicide and crisis lifeline) and 211 (information and referral) demand in North Dakota has risen sharply and that state budget decisions should prioritize ongoing funding for these services.

"These services are quite literally lifelines for community members in North Dakota who are struggling in the most desperate painful moments of their life," Illich said. She advised the committee her organization operates both the state’s 988 lifeline center and the 211 helpline and asked members to support House Bill 1012, which she said would help sustain operations.

Data Illich gave to the committee: she said average handling times are about 12 minutes per phone call, 35 minutes per chat, and 21 minutes per text. Call volumes tied to suicidal behavior rose from 5,017 phone calls in 2023 to 8,175 in 2024. Chats rose from 566 to 833, and texts rose from 456 to 1,199 across the same period. Illich told the panel those volumes are expected to increase further in 2025.

Staffing request: Illich told the committee First Link needs to hire eight to ten additional full-time employees in 2025 to handle the new chat and text traffic and maintain low wait and answer times. She said some temporary federal start-up grants that helped expand coverage after 988’s national launch are expiring in 2024–2025 and that continuing funding is required to avoid capacity loss.

911 interaction and routing changes: Illich said the 988 service is now configured to take some transfers from 911 when clinically appropriate and that carriers are moving to geolocation-based routing similar to 911 so calls can be routed to the nearest crisis center. She said the national vendor (Vibrant Emotional Health) is transitioning routing to geolocation; AT&T and Verizon are changing routing by geolocation now and others will follow.

Why it matters: Illich emphasized that callers to 988 may be in immediate crisis and that long waits can put people at risk. She said First Link maintains a community resource database with over 5,500 service listings and can escalate some contacts to mobile crisis teams where appropriate.

Committee follow-up: Chair Chairman Nelson and representatives asked technical questions about 911 transfers and funding sources; Illich said First Link currently is funded in part by short-term SAMHSA grants that are scheduled to expire in 2025 and that the center is included in behavioral health budget discussions.

Ending: The committee accepted Illich’s testimony for the record and said the staffing and budget request will be considered during the behavioral health budget review.