"The federal 988 hotline represents a promising new approach to alleviating the nation's growing mental health crisis, but several key challenges loom that could derail this well-intentioned initiative.

One significant information technology challenge the hotline will face involves how to uniformly store and interpret mental health data (more on that later) but the most immediate roadblock is a lack of awareness.

Though the hotline is scheduled to debut in July, the program, which is federally sanctioned and funded but left up to individual states to implement, was announced with little fanfare, so many people within and outside of the medical community likely are unaware of its existence."

Rich Parker is an internal medicine physician.

He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "The new 988 hotline has potential to transform mental health care, but challenges loom."

Did you enjoy today's episode?

Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out.

Click here to earn 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CME for this episode.

Also available in Category 1 CME bundles.

Powered by CMEfy - a seamless way for busy clinician learners to discover Internet Point-of-Care Learning opportunities that reward AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Learn more at about.cmefy.com/cme-info

Why the new 988 hotline has the potential to transform mental health care

The Podcast by KevinMD