988 Suicide Crisis Lifeline gets 911 technology
Technology used to help emergency crews respond to 911 calls more efficiently will now be used to support 988 call centers in South Carolina.Technology company, RapidDeploy, has announced that it will be working with Mental Health America of Greenville County as the new, statewide 988 solution. In July 2022, the federal government designated 988 as a nationwide 3-digit number for mental health crisis and suicide prevention services. As 988 calls continue to grow, RapidDeploy hopes their Radius Mapping technology will help call centers better communicate with those facing mental health emergencies.In a statement, RapidDeploy said, “Radius Mapping will be used in South Carolina to solve some of the current challenges with 988 related to routing, communication, and resource location. 988 callers need to talk to people close by, in their local language, through text if needed, and 988 centers need to know the available resources to help. RapidDeploy supports them in all these efforts and more.”Calls to the 988 Lifeline are currently routed to their closest center based on area code. RapidDeploy Co-Founder and CEO, Steven Raucher, says his technology will help combat issues related to this routing system. “If you are a Virginia number and happen to be in California having a crisis, your call is being routed to Virginia. So, there is a problem there if you are looking for help,” says Raucher. “So the idea of having context of their location and having all of that data preloaded through a national program, which is where we come in and create a national solution, to help understand the context of where that caller is and what immediate help is available.”According to RapidDeploy, Greenville County Sheriff’s Office has been a user of their Radius Mapping technology for years. They say the technology supplies caller location data, supplemental data for improved situation awareness, and other data and feturess to help with communication workflow and response. RapidDeploy says South Carolina is now the first state to adopt the technology for 988.“Technology is only as good as the partners it works with,’ says Raucher. “We started selling software in American in late 2018, and it’s the early adoptive community- whether it be 911 and now 988- that has changed the course of outcomes by partnering with frontier tech companies like myself, like RapidDeploy.”RapidDeploy is currently deployed statewide in 9 states and in hundreds of local 911 centers across the country.
Technology used to help emergency crews respond to 911 calls more efficiently will now be used to support 988 call centers in South Carolina.
Technology company, RapidDeploy, has announced that it will be working with Mental Health America of Greenville County as the new, statewide 988 solution.
In July 2022, the federal government designated 988 as a nationwide 3-digit number for mental health crisis and suicide prevention services. As 988 calls continue to grow, RapidDeploy hopes their Radius Mapping technology will help call centers better communicate with those facing mental health emergencies.
In a statement, RapidDeploy said, “Radius Mapping will be used in South Carolina to solve some of the current challenges with 988 related to routing, communication, and resource location. 988 callers need to talk to people close by, in their local language, through text if needed, and 988 centers need to know the available resources to help. RapidDeploy supports them in all these efforts and more.”
Calls to the 988 Lifeline are currently routed to their closest center based on area code. RapidDeploy Co-Founder and CEO, Steven Raucher, says his technology will help combat issues related to this routing system.
“If you are a Virginia number and happen to be in California having a crisis, your call is being routed to Virginia. So, there is a problem there if you are looking for help,” says Raucher. “So the idea of having context of their location and having all of that data preloaded through a national program, which is where we come in and create a national solution, to help understand the context of where that caller is and what immediate help is available.”
According to RapidDeploy, Greenville County Sheriff’s Office has been a user of their Radius Mapping technology for years. They say the technology supplies caller location data, supplemental data for improved situation awareness, and other data and feturess to help with communication workflow and response.
RapidDeploy says South Carolina is now the first state to adopt the technology for 988.
“Technology is only as good as the partners it works with,’ says Raucher. “We started selling software in American in late 2018, and it’s the early adoptive community- whether it be 911 and now 988- that has changed the course of outcomes by partnering with frontier tech companies like myself, like RapidDeploy.”
RapidDeploy is currently deployed statewide in 9 states and in hundreds of local 911 centers across the country.
Gloss