Wyoming has had in-state call centers for the 988 suicide hotline for the past two years. Those centers can now receive text messages.
Since June, anyone with a 307 area code who texts 988 will get a response from someone within the state. Beforehand texts were going to national call centers.
“[Callers] like to be able to talk to people who can understand them, which is something I think only Wyomingites can do effectively, Wyomingites talk to Wyomingites,” said Alicia Johnson, the 988 crisis program manager for the Wyoming Department of Health.
She said texting is reaching a whole group of people who may not use the service because they don’t want to pick up the phone and talk. A huge part of this population is youth. For the first two months, the centers received 801 chat and text interactions.
“It's definitely being utilized at high rates each month and we like to believe that's making a difference,” said Johnson.
In order to provide this in-state service, Johnson said the 988 improvement federal grant received in 2023 allowed the department to get the infrastructure together with chat and text service – plus the workforce needed. She said at the same time, the Wyoming Legislature fully funded the services as well. That money allowed both of the centers in the state to hire four additional employees.
The department is starting to gather information on the demographics of people using the text and chat service.
Another change is coming to 988 at the end of this month. Vibrant, the national network that hosts all 988 services, is implementing geo-routing. That means anyone who texts or calls from inside the state will get routed to one of the Wyoming call centers.
“If you lived here, have lived here for a long time, but you don't have that 307 area code, it'll make sure you're still routed to a Wyoming call center,” explained Johnson. “I do want to make sure that everyone knows it's not pinpointing anybody's location, nobody's going to be able to find you based on the geo-routing functionality. But it will make sure that, like myself, if you have a different area code, you'll still get to a Wyoming person.”
Calls made from within the state, regardless of area code, will be routed to the closest cell tower instead of relying on area codes to connect to the right call center.
