The state’s 988 suicide had the nation’s fifth highest rate of abandoned calls in August, the latest data available, amid a multi-million funding deficit that could worsen as federal dollars expire this year.

Between January and August of last year, more than 20,000 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline callers in Texas hung up over delays as call centers struggled under a $7 million shortfall.Since launching in 2022,

Texas’s 988 suicide hotline had 18,000 abandonned calls from January to August 2024 amid a funding defecit (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) Thousands of calls are being abandoned as Texas’s suicide hotline faces a $7 million funding deficit,