988 State and Territory Improvement - The Maryland Department of Health is Behavioral Health Administration (BHA), in partnership with jurisdictions and Maryland Lifeline crisis centers, will build local 988 capacity with the $9,728,112 ($3,242,704 per year for three years, contingent on annual Federal appropriations) FY 2023 Cooperative Agreements for States and Territories to Improve Local 988 Capacity (SAMHSA FG 23-006). This project will increase the state's responsiveness to 988 contacts, including calls, chats, and texts, originating in Maryland. Maryland's Lifetime call, text, and chat volume has significantly increased since 988 launched in July 2022. Grant funds will be used by Maryland Lifeline crisis centers to maintain and expand their workforce to respond to this increase in need and to ensure that 988 services are accessible, responsive and effective in serving the needs of all Maryland residents. During the project, BHA will be working with Lifeline crisis centers and other stakeholders to: * Enhance recruitment, hiring, and training of the 988 workforce to meet at minimum 90 percent of the state calls, chats, and text demand; * Implement additional technology and security measures to fully support 988 infrastructure and effective coordination across the crisis continuum; * Improve 988 support and service for high-risk and underserved populations; * Develop and implement comprehensive quality assurance plans, to include identification and review of critical incidents; and * Continue to develop and implement comprehensive 988 communication plans in alignment with SAMHSA's 988 partners toolkit. The state will measure its project success in this grant using the following key performance targets: * 90% or more of calls, chats, and texts originating in Maryland will be answered by Maryland Lifetime crisis centers. * 95% of answered contracts in Maryland are answered within 20 seconds. * 90% of answered of answered contacts in Maryland are answered in 15 seconds. * Less than 5% of contacts disconnect prior to being answered by a Maryland crisis center. * Less than 10% of Maryland phone contacts rollover to a non-Maryland backup center. Maryland has currently achieved, as of April 2023, a 90% average in-state answer rate for calls, a 49% average in-state answer rate for texts, and a 42% average in-state answer rate for chats. For that same month, our current contact abandon rate is 10%, and our average speed-to-answer is 30 seconds.
