Nevada lawmakers approve $10M for 988 crisis hotline call center growth
State lawmakers agreed to give more than $10 million to Nevada’s expanding 988 crisishotlineThursday. Nonprofit and state health officials said the approval shifts funds out of reserves to benefit suicide and mental health crisis support centers in Southern Nevada run by Carelon Behavioral Health. “This is a historic moment for Nevada and we cannot lose momentum,” said Trinh Dang-Mai, executive director of the state chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “Continued funding to support Carelon Call Center is critical to sustain and strengthen this work to build a crisis system that supports individuals and families across our state.
If this is going to be successful, we need to continue to build out all three pillars: someone to call, someone to respond and somewhere to go.” Nevadans are increasingly using thenascent mental healthhotline, though public understanding of it remains limited, Shannon Bennett, a bureau chief with the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, told legislators during the Interim Finance Committee meeting. She said the number has seen an increase in utilization by nearly 100 percent since the country switched from a 10-digit hotline in July 2022.
The funds were moved out of reserves because expenses have grown since November 2024, she said. Then, the state approved a $49.7 million contract with Carelon to begin operations within six months.
The crisis response hotline has a roughly $78.1 million budget for the state’s two-year budget cycle, including the reserves. Before that contract, the state only had one call center: Crisis Support Services of Nevada in Reno.
Bennett said these funds don’t address technology investments the state hopes to make into the hotline program in other contracts and budget cycles. That includes technology that improves coordination between 911 call centers and 988 centers, as well as the 211 social service hotline system. “Where we want to go is that the behavioral health calls that inundate our 911 system would go to 988, and that 911 would be able to transfer those calls seamlessly to 988, and vice versa,” she said.
The 988 program is funded in part through a 35-cent fee leveraged on phone lines. Contact McKenna Ross atmross@reviewjournal.com.Follow@mckenna_ross_on X.