Crisis Text Line Will Offer Suicide Prevention Service for Minnesota

Minnesota’s text message suicide response will soon be available statewide 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for free. The state will also see more suicide prevention services at no additional cost.

People who text MN to 741741 will be connected with a trained counselor who will help diffuse the crisis and connect the texter to local resources. Crisis Text Line has been available since 2013 across the nation but will be the state’s sole provider beginning April 1.

Currently, the state of Minnesota pays $1.125 million to support 54 of the 87 counties with both text message suicide response service and community suicide prevention efforts.

Crisis Text Line will not cost the state any additional funds since the service is provided through grants and donations. The savings will be used to expand community suicide prevention and local coordination supporting Crisis Text Line statewide.

In a press release from the Minnesota Department of Human Services they stated that texting is the preferred way to communicate for many people, especially youth, and it is important to reach people where they are at when they are contemplating suicide or in crisis.

Crisis Text Line handles 50,000 texters per month nationally. Minnesota’s previous text message suicide response service has been offering services since 2011, responding to more than 11,000 texts in 2016.