North Dakota’s main suicide and crisis lifeline is seeing a surge in demand that local operators say exceeds their staffing capacity, forcing some callers to be connected to national backup centers rather than local responders who can arrange on-the-ground help.
Staffing shortfall affects rural crisis care
At an interim legislative committee hearing this week, officials with FirstLink — the nonprofit that runs North Dakota’s 988 service — outlined how call volume has grown in recent years and described limits to the organization’s ability to answer every incoming call from within the state.
"What's going on right now is when people call 988, they might fall through the cracks 'cause they're not getting FirstLink, they're not getting the local response, they're going to the backup center," said Jennifer Illich, executive director of FirstLink.
Illich told legislators that last year the system fielded more than 15,000 calls, up from roughly 2,800 in 2020. That increase has made reliance on backup call centers necessary, but those centers do not have the same ability to coordinate local mobile crisis teams or link callers to North Dakota’s continuum of care.
The distinction matters particularly in rural areas where callers may lack transportation or immediate access to community mental-health providers. A local call specialist can dispatch a mobile crisis response team — an action national backup centers cannot reliably perform for North Dakota communities.
Options and short-term needs
FirstLink has applied for federal funding through the Rural Transformation Health Program but indicated during the hearing that it uncertain about receiving that aid. The organization urged state policymakers to consider additional support in the next legislative session to shore up local answering capacity.
- Calls in 2023 (last year reported): more than 15,000
- Calls in 2020: roughly 2,800
- Estimated additional staff needed: 26 full-time positions, according to FirstLink
| Metric | Number |
|---|---|
| Calls in 2020 | ~2,800 |
| Calls last year | >15,000 |
| Additional staff requested | 26 FTE |
Some other states have responded to similar shortfalls by enacting new telecommunication fees to generate sustainable funding for crisis networks. North Dakota has so far resisted such fees, citing concerns about financial burdens on consumers. Proponents argue such a fee would be modest and could help prevent suicides by maintaining local response capacity.
Committee members pressed FirstLink about how the state’s rural makeup affects service delivery and whether federal programs could be a viable path to expand local answering capacity. Illich said that while the state has invested in the crisis system, those investments are only effective if there are enough specialists available to answer calls when they come in.
The hearing makes clear that lawmakers and service providers will need to weigh short-term operational needs against longer-term funding decisions to ensure North Dakotans in crisis can reach a responder who can coordinate local resources.
