The entire organization is extremely shady, and Vibrant Behavioral Health subcontracts to a bunch of random companies. There is often zero requirement that the “trained counselor” on the other end of the line has any form of clinical experience - the only requirement for hire is often just a psychology BA.

Most of what 988 does is call the police. Calling will end up with essentially a robot reading a script of questions to you, and choosing to hang up or answering the questions in a way the random person on the other end of the line finds unacceptable will have the cops knock on your door. Even if they don’t call the cops, the most they will be able to do is say “I’m sorry, that sounds hard.” They will lie and claim resources are available, when they often are not unless you have the ability to pay/insurance.

They have probably spent more money on advertising than they have researching into effective ways to prevent suicide. They are completely opaque about how many calls end with non consensual intervention - and often these calls are made completely inappropriately. There is no accountability - complaints are handled by Vibrant, not necessarily the subcontractor you spoke to. There’s evidence that they are lying about the number of nonconsensual interventions.

988 primarily exists so that people have something they can say to someone in crisis. It is a pretend solution to a problem - it allows Americans to pretend the mental health crisis is being addressed by someone.

Involuntary inpatient hospital stays increase the risk of suicide for years after. Having the police show up at your door to take you to a filthy facility where you lose all rights, where you can be physically assaulted and verbally abused - this is not “care,” but this is often what happens.

It’s a bandaid on an amputated leg. It lets people pat themselves on the back for “helping.”

  • andros_rex@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    5·
    14 days ago

    Mental health in America is this fucked up mess of paternalistic bullshit. The nature of struggling with mental illness somehow invalidates your ability to advocate for yourself. You are “crazy” so your suggestions on what you think effective care might be do not count. Mental health facilities are allowed to lie to you, too - you are treated like a child.

    I would love something like what 988 promises. I have PTSD. I have moments where I have flashbacks, I have nights where I cannot sleep because my body floods me with the panic chemicals. I would love the ability to call a number late at night and have someone listen to me, to maybe gently work my way through visualization exercises, to help calm me down. I’m not so mentally ill that I am a child that can not be trusted to know what I need, I am a person who has suffered severe abuse and has a brain that sometimes sees a certain street sign or smells something and then I am a 14 year old trying to get someone to listen to me. I need help regulating sometimes - I don’t get why this is an impossible ask.

    The closest thing I have gotten to that was a random person on Washington’s child protective services line, oddly enough.

    It would have been nice to have that comfort last night. Instead I drank.