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Kansas officials report growth in 988 lifeline use, flag staffing and routing gaps
Summary
Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services told the House Health and Human Services Committee that 988 contacts have increased since launch, but in‑state answer rates, staffing and follow‑up capacity remain areas for improvement; the state’s coordinating council recommended making 988 fund dollars roll over into future years.
Drew Adkins of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) told the Committee on House Health and Human Services on Jan. 28 that Kansas has expanded its 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline operations since the dialing code launched nationally in July 2022 and that the state is answering most in‑state contacts but still relies on national backup when local centers cannot take calls.
KDADS told the committee that 988 is a free, national dialing code that connects callers to the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline; in Kansas calls, texts and chats are answered through five centers: Wyandotte Behavioral Health Network, Johnson County Mental Health Center, Comcare (Sedgwick County), Headquarters Kansas (covering the balance of state) and a national backup operated by HealthSource Integrated Solutions. "988 is the dialing code to connect to the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline," Adkins said during his presentation.
The presentation included state metrics and national context: nationwide the lifeline has handled more than 14.6 million texts, calls and chats since implementation. KDADS reported roughly 47,000 originating in‑state calls, about 37,000 routed in‑state and roughly 33,000 answered in‑state in the dataset shown; KDADS also reported 17,289 in‑state chats and texts routed and about 10,000 answered in‑state during the 90‑day snapshot it presented. KDADS said monthly national contacts exceeded roughly 500,000 in May 2024 and that texts and chats have grown faster than calls since 2022.
Adkins said Kansas implemented geo‑routing in fall 2024 to steer callers to their nearest local center so follow‑up and local referrals are more feasible. He also told the committee that staffing shortages have affected in‑state answer capacity and that some contacts are “abandoned” by callers — those contacts are routed to the national backup so callers are not left without an answered line.
HealthSource Integrated Solutions’ Chief Administrative Officer Monica Kurz told the committee that national trainings are required by the federal vendor and that local centers add further training and quality monitoring. "Vibrant Emotional Health ... makes online training available to every center and requires that any counselor who's going to answer phone calls, texts or chats complete those trainings," Kurz said. She added that HealthSource performs additional in‑house training and exceeds the national quality‑monitoring minimums.
Kurz provided average contact lengths: roughly 26 minutes for phone calls on average and about 45 minutes for text conversations, noting wide variation by case. She said some Kansas centers operate from in‑office call centers while others provide hybrid (work‑from‑home) options for staff who can meet HIPAA and connectivity requirements, and she said HealthSource conducts quality reviews on more than the national minimum (the national standard cited in testimony was 3% of phone calls and 1% of texts/chats).
Committee members asked KDADS whether the 988 system can follow up with callers who abandon contacts; Adkins said that because 988 is designed to be anonymous the state generally cannot identify and follow up with those callers, though geo‑routing produces de‑identified local information. Representatives also asked about transfers between 911 and 988. Kurz said transfers occur in both directions: 988 will transfer calls that need medical or law enforcement response to 911, and 911 centers have been given direct transfer capability to move appropriate calls to 988 for crisis counseling when no emergency response is required.
On funding, Adkins said the state receives about $10,000,000 annually into a 988 fund to support call center operations and marketing. He told the committee that the 988 Coordinating Council recommended a FY2026 change to allow remaining 988 fund dollars to roll over to the next fiscal year; KDADS said it would double‑check whether that recommendation had been included in the agency’s formal budget enhancement requests. The committee did not take formal action on 988 funding during the hearing.
KDADS provided county maps and 90‑day dashboards showing higher call and text volumes in Wyandotte, Sedgwick and Johnson counties and many rural counties with fewer than 10 contacts in the sample window.
Ending: KDADS offered to provide additional data on abandoned contacts, more recent monthly answer‑rate data and any updates to funding language. The committee heard that Kansas has generally met or exceeded the 90% in‑state answer‑rate benchmark set by the 988 coordinating council at times, but workforce and expansion of chat/text capacity remain active concerns for the agency and the coordinating council.
