T-Mobile Becomes First Carrier To Enable 988 Number For Mental Health Services (theverge.com) 42
T-Mobile has added support for the 988 emergency mental health services number more than a year and a half ahead of the Federal Communications Commission's deadline, the company announced on Friday. The Verge reports: T-Mobile customers who dial 988 will be connected to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) and its network of crisis centers across the US. T-Mobile says it is the first carrier in the US to make 988 available to its customers. T-Mobile chief technology officer Abdul Saad said in a statement that making the shorter emergency number available to customers was "a matter of urgency for us, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the holiday season approaches." People in need of mental health support can still contact the NSPL by calling 1-800-273-8255 (1-800-273-TALK) or by using online chats.
Seriously? (Score:1, Troll)
Dial 988 and they send a paddy wagon to come get you?
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Dial 988 and they send a paddy wagon to come get you?
Nope. The police have been defunded. So no more paddy wagons.
But 988 doesn't work. Here the real number: 989.
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Interesting)
On some other planet where the NYPD alone doesn't still receive more funding than the armies of most countries?
Re: Seriously? (Score:2)
Im not sure if thats a fair comparison. While I am all for demilitarizing the police (notice I didnt say defund). I think a per capita measure would be a better metric. Also there are a lot of countries that take advantage of the US and deliberately under staff their military leaving most of the heavy lifting for our armed forces. Ask me how I know. But I would be very interested in a per capita metric on funding and crime rates. That would really cast a light if the money is being well spent or not.
I will
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Why would the police be needed for a mental health problem? Usually when the police show up the shoot the person having the problem.
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If you have any doubt, read the Special Announcement on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline [suicidepre...feline.org] page.
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Dial 988 and they send a paddy wagon to come get you?
That's racist, you know.
New faster way for cops to shoot family dog, (Score:5, Interesting)
on their way to shooting a child [nytimes.com] having a mental health episode.
Lots of people shit on the "defund the police" idea, but if cops didn't have so much money they could deploy dozens of vehicles, hundreds of cops, snipers, tanks, drones and robots over a bumper sticker*, [theintercept.com] maybe they would have more money for unarmed crisis response teams with mental health professionals.
* For the mouth breathers, she had un-reported the car as stolen, and since when do cops do everything but call out the US Army in response to a reported stolen vehicle.
Re: New faster way for cops to shoot family dog, (Score:3, Informative)
About your second link, Austin is also the city where police almost killed a teenage peaceful protestor standing 100 yards away on a hill by shooting him in the head with a bean bag round (the round lodged in his skull), then pepper sprayed the protestors and volunteer medics that were carrying him trying to get him to an ambulance.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/a... [google.com]
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You might want to rethink your argument that literally says "if cops didn't have so much money [...] maybe they would have more money."
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For the mouth breathers, she had un-reported the car as stolen...
Also for the mouth breathers, the term "un-reported" is complete fucking gibberish.
Re: New faster way for cops to shoot family dog, (Score:4, Insightful)
Where I live they rarely do anything for a stolen vehicle. Most of the time it shows up a few days later abandoned. I cant imagine a swat response. But do me a favor and use the term demilitarize instead of defund. Having lived through Bill Clintons slashing of the defense budget in 1992 while enlisted, I can tell you it never works out the way you intend. Those special pet projects like teaching flipper to retrieve torpedos never get cut and instead they short us on manpower and supplies. You cant just cut the budget and tell them to figure out how to make it work. They will always do something different than what you intended. Instead just prohibit or extremely limit the conditions in which certain equipment can be deployed and when specific tactics can be used.
Is it any surprise really... (Score:2)
* Individual freedom is always more important than individual health and safety
* The individual is more always important than their peers and local community
* The right to self-defence is more important than creating a non-hostile environment
* Everyone should possess a lethal weapon to protect against "government tyranny"
* Any attempt by public officials to act in a manner which contradicts the above is tyrannical
Is it any wonder that the police
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Some reasons why today's Internet is worthless (Score:2)
How do they even do that anyway? Half the time /. Will log me back out and I only realize it when it says posting anonymous is disabled. I had assumed they did away with it but were too much of a lazy ass programmers to remove the field on the form. Why else would 3 years go by and I still cant use quotes or apostrophe from mobile safari even though every single other site has no issues.
Can I send them to the White House (Score:4, Insightful)
Before it becomes an emergency
Re:Can I send them to the White House (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Can I send them to the White House (Score:3)
I know your just kidding, but sicking mental health authorities on those we disagree with is a slippery slope to real world crimes comitted by china, russia, saudi arabia, iran, former iraq, and a bunch of other shithole countries. It goes back to the ultimate question of who watches the watchmen? Its the very basis behind our system of laws and justice. We ultimately leave it up to the people to overwhelming agree or disagree. I would never be ok letting a permanent panel of unelected officials make decisi
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I would never be ok letting a permanent panel of unelected officials make decisions about life and liberty regardless what their credentials say.
You just described the entire judicial system.
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jury of your peers.. you have a right to a trial by jury. Only a fool goes to trial without a jury. They are not a permanent panel. They are people selected randomly to participate in a 2 week civic responsibility.
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In an ideal world. But far too much jury "adjustment" happens out there. Such as "peers" been an all-white panel when the defendant is black. Which lead to the conviction and sentencing of an innocent black person for over 20 years. Turned out the prosecutor deliberately excused black people from
Re: Can I send them to the White House (Score:1)
You want to Save Hitler(TM), while he's in the Führerbunker?
Jeez, you are a madman! :D
Suicide prevenion is such a selfish thing (Score:3, Interesting)
Instead of not creating an environment that makes you suffer so much, that death becomes the better option, in the first place,
we're gonna half-assedly demand that you stay alive to serve our selfish needs of being able to continue to use you and to not feel bad about missing you, and serve you pressure to stay alive with a side of shaming you for your "selfish" wish to not suffer, because your existence is actually all about us, and you should just stay alive and keep suffering pain that we literally cannot imagine. That way *we* feel better. Because *we* are the poor poor ones, suffering here. Please understand(TM).
That is how experienced all suicide prevention I ever saw. And I saw a lot.
Zero understanding. Zero empathy that one's problems might *actually* be big enough, and zero taking one seriously that it might *acually* be such a bad, non-resolveable situation. Because the average person just cannot accept or even imagine that it could *actually* be that bad. Or that painful. (Emotional pain is "not real anyway". Nevermind the pain center lighting up like a flare in MRTs.)
Everything is easy, if you just ignore the problems and don't dive deep enough into the situation that that person *actually has to deal with*.
No, ... suicial people don't actually want to die. ... See? ... You are not willing to spend many hours *every single day* to actually save one. ... You are just willing to make empty half-hearted promises, and demanddemanddemand that one "just" "snap out of it" [takethis.org] anyway.
But you, dear "friend", would need to dedicate and use up all of your actual life to make a change there.
And
Yeah, and if I demand it enough, two drops of gasoline will last all the way to Alaska, and pigs will fly too. --.--
If you can't save me... and as we showed, you don't want to ... then at least don't be a dick about it.
I don't like it either, you know?
If you want to ACTUALLY do something to prevent the death of a loved one, make their life as nice as possible. And I don't mean lazy material nice. I mean that expensive emotional nice. Nothing has a higher chance of saving somebody, than a long welcome hug and a dash of hope. And accept if sometimes, that's just not enough for the bad that is *actually* out there.
This is *not* about you.
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Instead of not creating an environment that makes you suffer so much, that death becomes the better option, in the first place,
It's not a better option.
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The last number you should call (Score:5, Interesting)
This is the last thing you should ever do if you value your rights. Calling this number will automatically result in the same loss of rights that you would suffer if you were involuntarily committed, on an "emergency" basis until you can be evaluated. Of course, you will never pass your evaluation, because there is more profit to be had in your commitment.
I know this because it happened to a family member of mine. He called the NSPL one night when he was feeling despondent, and within an hour, the county sheriff showed up to confiscate his firearms, arrest him, and deliver him to a mental hospital where he has been held against his will ever since. In the phone call he never even once mentioned suicide or a desire to kill himself or harm anyone else. The worst thing he said was that he was feeling hopeless and like the world was against him and that he sometimes wished he'd never been born. He really just wanted someone to talk to at 3AM and didn't want to wake up anyone in his family.
This is the kind of shit that happens to you when you involve government in your life. The government's version of "helping" is not what you think "helping" is.
Re: The last number you should call (Score:1)
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help
Boy do I miss Reagan. He had a funny yet effective way to get his points across.
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This is the last thing you should ever do if you value your rights. Calling this number will automatically result in the same loss of rights that you would suffer if you were involuntarily committed, on an "emergency" basis until you can be evaluated.
I walked away from an abusive domestic situation. When my spouse found out where I was hiding, she called 911 and told them I had a gun and that I said I was going to kill myself.
The entire SWAT team showed up with bullet proof vests and machine guns, arrested me, and put me in jail.
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Of course, you will never pass your evaluation, because there is more profit to be had in your commitment.
I saw a film in which this had happened to someone. It felt contrived but then I found it was based on a true story.
It's fucked up.
"Mentally-Ill hotline? I'm insane." (Score:3)
Hotline: Calling the mentally-ill hotline when you are mentally-ill isn't insane at all! Go away you silly fraud!
The hotline had a success rate of 100% for years to come.
Catch-22? (Score:2)
Have you ever read that book?
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Heh heh...yeah.
Got it OK. (Score:2)
Fix the root causes first (Score:2)
One issue with having a "mental health emergency line" is that anyone using it is going to get involuntarily committed. When I say "committed" it's not to an inpatient mental hospital where you can rest and get treatment...it's to a psych emergency ward in a hospital. There are very few "mental hospitals" in the old sense of the word where you put mentally ill people until they were stable (or for life.) Once you have an involuntarily commitment on your record, it'll be there forever and show up in any back
First *cell* carrier, not first telco to do it (Score:1)
Stockton, CA - charges homicidal threats as felon (Score:1)