Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

NYC 988 is New York City’s free, confidential support, crisis intervention, and information and referral service for anyone seeking help for mental health and/or substance misuse concerns, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

NYC 988 is operated by Vibrant Emotional Health on behalf of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

A trained counselor will listen to your concerns or help you through a crisis and give you the support, resources, and referrals you need to move forward and be well.

Yes- when you call or text 988 you have the option of Press 2 for phone call or texting AYUDA for Spanish. NYC 988 also offers telephone interpretation in over 200 languages.

NYC 988 focuses on helping New Yorkers with area codes 212, 718, 646, 917, 347, and 929. However, regardless of your location, anyone can get access to local mental health support if thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support by calling 988.

All contacts with the 988 Lifeline from people seeking help are to be treated as confidential by the 988 Lifeline and 988 Lifeline network centers. This means that information about callers/chatters/texters will not be shared outside the 988 Lifeline without documented verbal or written consent from the person seeking help, except in cases where there is imminent risk of harm to self or someone else, or where otherwise required by law. It’s important to remember that confidential and anonymous are not synonymous. During your contact with the 988 Lifeline you may voluntarily share certain information about yourself that could be identified and that information may be documented in notes about your conversation. The center may also have access to the phone number or IP address you used to contact the 988 Lifeline. You will never be required to provide other identifying information to receive help from the 988 Lifeline. We rigorously protect all the confidential and identifying information shared with the 988 Lifeline. We may use de-identified and aggregated data for reports to stakeholders, funders, and policymakers about the numbers and types of conversations we have with people in crisis, and the general aggregate demographics of people seeking help from the 988 Lifeline.

The Find Services search engine includes a collection of behavioral health, and supporting services (substance use, housing, legal, social and community services) within the five boroughs. It does not currently include therapists or providers in private practice. See here for a comprehensive description of our inclusion/exclusion policies.

The search engine allows you to filter your search results by program focus, age eligibility, payment eligibility (insurance) and geographic location.

You can search for help using everyday language. You can search using terms that express how you are feeling, or using a description of the condition you are seeking support for. Typing more words will narrow your results, so if you are seeing too few results try removing words, or using a broader term. If you are having trouble finding help using the Find Services search tool, you can call 988, text 988 or chat 24 hours a day for help from one of our counselors.

Examples: 

•  anorexia 10024: You can search for resources that serve a particular zip code by including the zip code in your search.
•  “day treatment”: When you want to match a phrase exactly, like “day treatment” or “eating disorder,” put it in  quotes.

To suggest a resource for us to add, or to update an existing resource in the “Find Services” database, please use this form.

You can make a complaint or give a compliment here.