The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a phone, chat, and text service that provides free and confidential support to people in suicidal crisis or mental health related distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the U.S. Behind the scenes, it’s a national network of more than 200 local, independent, and state crisis centers staffed with skilled, trained crisis counselors. The 988 Lifeline local centers are backed up by a national network of crisis contact centers. 988 offers specialized services for Spanish-language speakers and people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, and connects Veterans, service members, and their families to the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) for tailored support. 988 also uses Language Line Solutions to provide interpretation to callers in more than 240 additional languages.