New Vista sees rise in calls after 988 suicide lifeline launch

LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ)– The national suicide and crisis lifeline, 988, will be celebrating its one year anniversary on Sunday, July 16.

Since the launch of 988, New Vista, a community mental health center in central Kentucky has seen a 20% increase in calls.

Since July 18, 2022, New Vista has answered over 3,700 calls to the lifeline.

Darcy Miller, the Regional Director of Emergency Response and Client Engagement for New Vista, said it doesn’t come as a surprise.

“I think it’s kind of what we predicted with 988, it’s a three digit number it’s a lot easier to remember than a 10 digit number,” said Miller. “When people are struggling with some type of crisis or mental health distress.”

“We recently received a testimonial from a 988 center in Kentucky where a caller reported feeling overwhelmed with emotions and was actively suicidal,” said Governor Beshear during a Team Kentucky update.

“By the end of the call the crisis counselor was able to guide the caller to a safer, calmer place. The same caller followed up with the crisis counselor to make sure they knew of their impact and the caller voiced that their life had been saved as a result.”

Governor Beshear announced that Kentucky is ranked No. 1 in the area of mental health across the U.S. for how many adults and youth have mental health and addiction issues and how many have access to health coverage.

One non-profit, Shelby’s Way, is glad to see a change in the way we talk about mental health.

Mark Cain, the founder of Shelby’s Way, lost his son to suicide in 2009, and says when he first started the non-profit in 2011 he felt alone in talking about and raising awareness for suicide.

Cain says the non-profit does a lot for families, because he doesn’t want anyone to go through what his family went through.

“So the money that we raise, it goes out to three things, we help people in everyday financial matters,” said Cain. “Secondly we pay for their mental health care when families reach out to us. And then lastly what we do is, it goes back to the night that Shelby passed away. I didn’t want families to have to worry about how they were going to pay for the funeral, when they reach out to us we’re here to either assist or pay for the funeral, whatever their needs may be.”

During their big event in October, Cain says they not only have a big hot rods show, but they talk about suicide and suicide prevention.

Cain said “If we can talk about it there, we can talk about it anywhere.”