You're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, I'm Anna Sale.

Before we get into it, in this episode, we discuss mental health and mentioned suicide.

If you or someone you love needs help, there are people you can call.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.

And after July 16th, you can simply dial the number 988.

More and more in our country, we are talking about mental health and what it takes to take care

of each of ours. World class athletes and performers are openly acknowledging their mental health

diagnoses and taking steps back when they meet it. People post on social media about their latest

breakthrough and therapy. I feel perfectly comfortable bringing up what I've learned in couples

counseling at a dinner party. It's not uniform across all mental health issues, though.

Social stigma around depression is different from the stigma around schizophrenia, for example.

But overall, Americans have become more accepting of mental health issues in the past 20 years.

And yet at the same time, suicide rates have gone up by about a third.

There are many complicated overlapping reasons for this. But the mental health community and

Congress are trying to address one key barrier to accessing care this month with a new phone number.

Starting July 16th, anywhere in the country, you can dial 988 to get help.

Any person experiencing a suicidal crisis, a mental health crisis, a substance use crisis,

or any type of emotional distress can dial 988 and be connected to a trained crisis counselor.

That's Hannah Wesolowski. She's the Chief Advocacy Officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

So when somebody calls 988, their call is directed based on their area code to a local call center.

The call is the intervention for 988. For about 80 to 98 percent of calls, they can be deescalated

over the phone. You can call from anywhere in the country and get help. But because it's directed

...