This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
By Sarah Ladd
Kentucky Lantern
Even though callers have lost access to a line dedicated to support the LGBTQ+ community, the director of a 988 crisis line in Kentucky says “help is still there.”
Geneva Robinson, director of the Crisis and Information Center for Seven Counties Services, told the Louisville Metro Board of Health that the loss of the LBGTQ+ option “doesn’t mean that services aren’t there.”
Until recently callers to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline could press 3 to be connected with staff specially trained to help LGBTQ+ callers who are negotiating mental health issues, KFF Health News reports. But the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced this summer that the dedicated line was being eliminated.
A spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget told NBC News that the administration would no longer “grant taxpayer money to a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by ‘counselors’ without consent or knowledge of their parents.”
The Trevor Project reports the LGBTQ+community is at heightened risk of depression, with 45% of LGBTQ+ youth having seriously contemplated ending their lives at the time they were surveyed by the organization.
In Louisville, Robinson said 988 staff are trained to respond to concerns from all callers.
“All of our people who provide the services have specialized training, not only in crisis intervention generalist techniques, but cultural competency training and specific training to work with groups like those who present with issues related to LGBTQ areas,” she said. “So, people can still get that help that they need. They just don’t have, unfortunately, that dedicated line any longer to reach that help. But the help is still there.”
The 988 system, launched by the federal government in 2022, is a national network of more than 200 crisis centers that field calls, texts and chats.
Seven Counties Services answered nearly 13,000 calls to the 988 line in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, Robinson said. In addition to Jefferson County, the agency serves Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble counties.
About 9,000 of those calls —70% — were from Louisville. That’s an average of about 173 local calls a week to the 988 line, which launched in July 2022, replacing a 10-digit number. The number is a mental health version of 911.
Other at-risk communities should feel safe to call when they need help and know that they’ll receive it confidentially, Robinson said.
“There are a lot of folks in our community, particularly those who who are traditionally in disadvantaged groups or disenfranchised groups, who may not feel comfortable reaching out for help, who, for a lot of different reasons, may feel that they can’t trust calling into any line or going anywhere to receive services,” Robinson said.
She referred specifically to undocumented immigrants, who have been the target of crackdowns from the Trump administration.
“I’m thinking about a lot of folks who might be in this country undocumented, or might have family members or friends who are undocumented, and right now they’re very concerned that if they reach out for help — even medical help they might need — that it might result in deportation, it might result in being arrested, being taken away from their family, or having a family member taken away,” Robinson said.
But, she stressed that 988 calls are confidential and anonymous. The only time a 988 operator would check caller identification is in the case of an imminent risk to life, Robinson said.
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