The nonprofit that runs the city’s 988 mental health crisis hotline may have to gut its staff in the coming months because of a dropoff in funding, marking another hit for a behavioral health sector on shaky financial footing.
Vibrant Emotional Health, the FiDi-based nonprofit that operates the hotline, is facing a $10 million shortfall that has forced the organization to consider laying off roughly a third of its 300-person staff, according to Michele Giordano, vice president of contact center services at the organization. The potential layoffs, which are likely to impact hotline operators and other frontline staff, were first reported by Gothamist.
Looming layoffs could prolong wait times for callers. 988 callers get a response from the hotline in 22 seconds on average, but reducing frontline staff could increase that wait to up to two minutes, Giordano said.
“That is a dangerously high delay for a help-seeker in a moment of crisis,” Giordano said. “It puts an extra strain on the New York City mental health system that is already facing some barriers with access to care.”
The potential layoffs come at a precarious time for behavioral health providers, who face funding cuts from the Trump administration. The state Office of Mental Health is facing a $27 million cut after the federal government abruptly pulled Covid-19 relief dollars earlier this year, and the Department of Health and Human Services has proposed budget cuts that could erode other mental health programs.
The city launched its 988 hotline in 2022 as a part of a nationwide rollout to streamline the mental health crisis response system. The city previously operated a crisis line called NYC Well, which was also run by Vibrant Emotional Health, but transitioned to 988 in alignment with federal requirements.
City and state health agencies have poured millions into 988 operations, but the hotline faced challenges due to mental health workforce shortages and a lack of public awareness. City health officials budgeted less for the 988 hotline last year because outreach volume did not increase as much as previously projected, according to Rachel Vick, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Vibrant Emotional Health fielded 334,000 calls, texts and online chats made to the 988 hotline in 2024, according to the Health Department. The agency projected that the organization would receive 335,000 callers in the 2025 fiscal year, but Vibrant Emotional Health estimated that the number of callers was closer to 436,000, Giordano said. Through March, the hotline has served nearly 330,000 callers.
Under its most recent contract with the city, Vibrant Emotional Health receives $22 million annually to run the city’s mental health crisis hotline – a significant cut from the $33 million the organization received under its previous contract, the organization said.
Vibrant Emotional Health is continuing to negotiate with the city to increase its budget before it is forced to make cuts in the near future. Such cuts could have serious impacts on a critical preventative program within the city’s mental health system, said David Greenberg, chief financial officer at Vibrant Emotional Health.
“When you don’t have sufficient capacity to address demand, what happens is help seekers will either not get that help, they’re more likely to end up in an ED or hospital setting, they’re more likely to call 911,” Greenberg said. “They’re more likely to turn to interventions that are not good for them and also much more costly to society.”
