Starting Saturday, Hawaii residents will have access to the national 988 dialing code for direct access to mental health and substance abuse resources.
What You Need To Know
The code puts callers with an 808 area code phone number in touch with the Hawaii CARES crisis line, which provides free, confidential support to people in mental-health or substance use-related crisis
Callers with non-808 area code numbers will be connected with a crisis center in another state
Hawaii CARES is administered by the state Department of Health with support from CARE Hawaii and Aloha United Way
Last December, the federal Department of Health and Human Services directed $280 million toward helping states make the transition
The code, which operates similarly to 911, puts callers with an 808 area code phone number in touch with the Hawaii CARES crisis line, which provides free, confidential support to people in mental-health or substance use-related crisis.
