Saturday, January 24, 2026 1/24/2026

Building Georgia's 988 Capacity

Award Number: H79SM086096
ORGANIZATION: CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
OPDIV: SAMHSA
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: HEALTH SERVICES
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/30/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/29/2025

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Building Georgia's 988 Capacity - The Building Georgia's 988 Capacity Project will use grant funds to expand call center workforce at the Georgia Crisis and Access Line (GCAL), Georgia’s National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) vendor, where 988 calls will be answered. NSPL calls are projected to increase from 50,000 calls per year to 240,000 calls and texts/chats. Funds will support 32 additional call center staff, resulting in an estimated 3,840 more calls per week being answered. GCAL serves both insured and uninsured individuals experiencing a mental health, substance use or intellectual and developmental disability-related crisis 24/7/365 across all 159 Georgia counties. 79.68 percent (8,645,280) of Georgia’s population are age 15 years and over. 40.55 percent of Georgians live in rural areas. Behavioral Health Link, Inc., the operator of GCAL, will hire new staff, upgrade technology, and streamline processes to reduce call burden on staff and allow faster response times to individuals in crisis. These efforts will continue beyond the 988 rollout. Once fully staffed this could result in 399,000 calls being answered in the two-year lifetime of this grant. As a state participant in SAMHSA’s Governor’s Challenge to Prevent Suicide among Service Members, Veterans, and their Families, Georgia’s continued collaboration with the Veterans Suicide Line will be an area of focus in the 988 rollout. DBHDD has set GCAL performance metrics to be aligned with the grant KPI’s and are as follows: filling vacant front line staff positions within ten weeks; ≤ 1% downtime; average speed to answer (ASA) of ≤ 30 seconds, and abandonment of ≤ 5%. Follow up for suicidal individuals will be added as a metric. DBHDD’s Project Evaluator and other project staff will meet with GCAL regularly to review metrics, evaluate data, and conduct continuous quality improvement. Project Goals: (1) Supporting GCAL to achieve above noted metrics through funding additional staff and identifying technological and process efficiencies. (2) Answering all 988 calls, texts, and chats that originate in Georgia (3) Achieving and maintaining a 95% call answer rate for NSPL/988 (4) Identifying long term funding strategies to support sustainable high-quality 988 service Proposed number of calls to be completed: 399,000 Federal funding request for this application is $2,927,923


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = -$164,945 )
2026	2023	DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES	200 PIEDMONT AVE SE FL TOWER	ATLANTA	GA	30334	FULTON	USA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance	000	1	11/19/2025	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	-$164,945
2026	2022	DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES	200 PIEDMONT AVE SE FL TOWER	ATLANTA	GA	30334	FULTON	USA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance	001	1	11/19/2025	ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENT ( + OR - ) (DISCRETIONARY OR BLOCK AWARDS)	$0
														Subtotal = -$164,945

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2025	2022	DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES	200 PIEDMONT AVE SE FL TOWER	ATLANTA	GA	30334	FULTON	USA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance	000	1	10/21/2024	ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENT ( + OR - ) (DISCRETIONARY OR BLOCK AWARDS)	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2024	2022	DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES	2 PEACHTREE ST NW STE 25-394	ATLANTA	GA	30303	FULTON	USA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance	001	1	12/19/2023	ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENT ( + OR - ) (DISCRETIONARY OR BLOCK AWARDS)	$0
2024	2022	DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES	200 PIEDMONT AVE SE FL TOWER	ATLANTA	GA	30334	FULTON	USA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance	002	1	4/23/2024	ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENT ( + OR - ) (DISCRETIONARY OR BLOCK AWARDS)	$0
2024	2022	DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES	2 PEACHTREE ST NW STE 25-394	ATLANTA	GA	30303	FULTON	USA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance	000	1	12/18/2023	ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENT ( + OR - ) (DISCRETIONARY OR BLOCK AWARDS)	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $1,000,000 )
2023	2023	DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES	2 PEACHTREE ST NW STE 25-394	ATLANTA	GA	30303	FULTON	USA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance	000	1	12/16/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$1,000,000
2023	2022	DEPARTMENT OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES	2 PEACHTREE ST NW STE 25-394	ATLANTA	GA	30303	FULTON	USA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance	001	1	7/19/2023	ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPLEMENT ( + OR - ) (DISCRETIONARY OR BLOCK AWARDS)	$0
														Subtotal = $1,000,000

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $2,927,923 )
2022	2022	BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES, DEPARTMENT OF	2 PEACHTREE ST NW STE 25-394	ATLANTA	GA	30303	FULTON	USA	Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance	000	1	4/15/2022	NEW	$2,927,923
														Subtotal = $2,927,923

Grand Total All Awards = $3,762,978

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Building Georgia's 988 Capacity

Award Number: H79SM086096

ORGANIZATION: CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

OPDIV: SAMHSA

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: HEALTH SERVICES

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/30/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/29/2025

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