Stop squawking, get mental health line done in Ohio | News, Sports, Jobs

Ohio lawmakers are having a hard time wrapping their brains around the mechanism for funding the new 988 suicide and mental health support phone line, which launches across the country in July. That’s four months left to figure out how to get done what President Donald Trump signed into law back in 2020.

Calls and texts will be accepted through 988, which will be in addition to, rather than replacing, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. That number received 3.3 million calls, texts or web chats in 2020. A three-digit support line should make it even easier for those who are struggling to remember how to connect to someone who can help.

Oddly, some Ohio lawmakers have decided to nitpick. States will have to figure out how to pay for the technology and staff required to ensure callers get the help they need. The federal law allows states to impose fees to help cover the costs. Federal funding for the project will not last forever.

So, legislators such as state Rep. Jennifer Gross, R-West Chester, are complaining. It seems as though the cost of such a potentially lifesaving program is not worth it — or at least provides an opportunity for a little grandstanding.

Comparing apples to oranges, Gross asked bill sponsor Rep. Gail Pavliga, R-Atwater, “Can you explain at all why our Ohio program’s so incredibly much more expensive as compared to the Utah program?” according to reporting by the Ohio Capital Journal.

Pavliga, of course, was able to explain the difference between the numbers Gross was seeing in Utah and what was being discussed in Ohio legislation. But the exchange highlights potential challenges in developing a long-term funding structure for a program that will save lives. With the exception of ensuring there is no padding in the program for the sake of lining the pockets of King Bureaucracy, lawmakers should have little trouble developing a funding mechanism for 988.

“I think 911 has been around for 40 years?” Sue Villilo, vice president with the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health board of Franklin County, told the Capital Journal. “988 should be here well into the future.”

Rather than seizing the opportunity to squawk about “unfunded” federal mandates, Ohio lawmakers need to buckle down and get this one done.