The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a phone, chat, and text service that provides free and confidential support to people in suicidal crisis or mental health related distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the U.S.

Behind the scenes, it’s a national network of around 200 local, independent, and state crisis centers staffed with skilled, trained crisis counselors. The Lifeline maintains a number of centers within the network that also back up local crisis centers in answering phone calls and that also answer chats and texts. A few Lifeline centers also provide direct Spanish language support. Currently, the number to reach the Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255, but on July 16, 2022, the country will transition to using 988 (although the 800 number never goes away). There is one network administrator that oversees the Lifeline through a competitive grant with SAMHSA.

More frequently asked questions about the Lifeline.