Fewer than 1 in 5 know the 988 suicide lifeline

(Press-News.org) PHILADELPHIA – Annenberg Public Policy Center survey data show that public recall of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline number has grown slowly since the three-digit phone number was introduced in July 2022. Just 15% of U.S. adults are familiar with it, as of September 2024.

Survey respondents who accurately report awareness of the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline number increased significantly from August 2023 (11%) to September 2024 (15%). Those 15% of respondents reported both that they knew the number and, when asked in an open-ended format, said the number was 988. The number who inaccurately reported that the number was 911 (the nationwide emergency phone number) decreased to 1% in September 2024 from 4% in August 2023.

“The help that can be found at the 988 helpline can only save lives if those in need and their loved ones and friends know the number,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. “When 988 is as readily recalled as 911, the nation will have cause to celebrate.”

Although the survey found a year-over-year increase, it did not detect an increase in accurate responses between October 2023 and September 2024, a period that included the launch of an eight-month 988 awareness ad campaign by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in June 2024. The SAMHSA media campaign targets especially vulnerable subsets of the population, which may be too small to impact the overall awareness estimates in our nationally representative, general population sample.

APPC’s Annenberg Science and Public Health knowledge survey The survey data come from the 21st wave of a nationally representative panel of 1,744 U.S. adults conducted for the Annenberg Public Policy Center by SSRS, an independent market research company. Most have been empaneled since April 2021. To account for attrition, small replenishment samples have been added over time using a random probability sampling design. The most recent replenishment, in September 2024, added 360 respondents to the sample. This wave of the Annenberg Science and Public Health Knowledge (ASAPH) survey was fielded Sept. 13-22 and Sept. 26-30, 2024. The margin of sampling error (MOE) is ± 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not add to 100%. Combined subcategories may not add to totals in the topline and text due to rounding.

Download the topline and the methods report.

The policy center has been tracking the American public’s knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors regarding vaccination, Covid-19, flu, RSV, and other consequential health issues through this survey panel over the past two-and-a-half years. In addition to Jamieson and Gibson, APPC’s team on the survey includes research analyst Shawn Patterson Jr., Patrick E. Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute, and Ken Winneg, managing director of survey research.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established in 1993 to educate the public and policy makers about communication’s role in advancing public understanding of political, science, and health issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

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