If you are deciding right now what number to dial for someone in crisis, here is the short version, and then the honest detail.

988 for talk, text or chat with a counsellor. Your county's crisis line to get a mobile team sent to where the person is. 911 if there is a medical emergency or immediate physical danger. What follows is what each of those actually does — including three things people are told that are not true.

California counties must run a mobile crisis team

Since 2023 California has covered community-based mobile crisis intervention through Medi-Cal, and county behavioral health systems are required to provide it or arrange it.¹ The state's requirements go beyond the federal ones:²

  • available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
  • at least two providers on the response, one of whom can conduct a crisis assessment and one of whom carries and can administer naloxone
  • a team member trained in trauma-informed care and de-escalation
  • arrival within 60 minutes in urban areas, 120 minutes in rural areas — with rural defined as fewer than 50 people per square mile
  • a follow-up check-in within 72 hours

Read that response time carefully. The clock starts when the crisis line operator determines that a mobile response is needed — not when you pick up the phone.³ It is a standard the county is measured against, not a promise to you.

And you do not need a diagnosis. The state's guidance says mobile crisis services are covered "prior to determination of a mental health or SUD diagnosis, or a determination that the beneficiary meets access criteria" for the county's other programmes.² A team can be dispatched to a person in crisis, not to a person with paperwork.

There is no statewide mobile crisis number. Each county must publish one number that reaches its mobile crisis dispatch — sometimes the same as its 24/7 access line, sometimes a separate crisis line.² Find your county's now, before you need it, and put it in your phone. All 58 county lines, read off each county's own page →

Two limits worth knowing. Mobile crisis cannot be delivered inside a hospital, emergency department, jail, or crisis stabilisation unit — once someone is in one of those, this particular service no longer applies.² And the benefit itself has an expiry date: the federal option and the California statute both run to 31 March 2027, and the state has proposed making it optional for counties after that.⁴ That is a proposal, not law, but it is worth watching.

What 988 does, and what it does not

988 does not know where you are. The counsellor sees your phone number, or your IP address if you are chatting. Beyond that, in the administrator's own words, "they will not know who you are or where you are located," and you are not required to give personal information.⁵ Calls are routed to a nearby centre by carrier-level georouting where it has been implemented, and otherwise by the first six digits of your phone number — so a call can land at a centre far from where you actually are.⁵

988 can involve emergency services, and sometimes without consent. The Lifeline states that fewer than two per cent of its calls involve emergency services, and that over half of those dispatches happen with the caller's consent.⁶ Read the second half of that sentence: a minority happen without it. The federal agency's framing is the one to hold onto — "Most crises are managed by counsellors working with you to de-escalate the situation and without involving law enforcement. If you or the person you are calling about is in physical danger, your 988 counsellor will contact 911."⁷ And where a counsellor does contact 911 over an immediate risk to life, 911 may be asked to run a precise location lookup with the carrier.⁵ Anonymity is the norm, not a guarantee.

California's 988 law does not do what people think. AB 988, the Miles Hall Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Act, puts duties on state agencies — verifying that 988 and 911 systems can transfer between each other, appointing a state 988 director, convening an advisory board, and producing a five-year implementation plan, which was delivered in December 2024.⁸ It also created the surcharge on phone lines that funds 988 centres and mobile crisis teams.⁸ It does not require any county to send mobile crisis instead of police, and it gives no individual the right to demand a non-police response. The only language about an "alternative to a response from law enforcement" sits inside the list of topics the state's recommendations had to address.⁸

What your county already owes you

Separately from all of the above, every county mental health plan must operate a toll-free line, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with language capability in the languages its members speak, telling people how to get services — including the services needed to treat an urgent condition.⁹ Counties must make services available around the clock for an urgent condition, and referrals can come from you directly, from a school, a family member, a doctor, or law enforcement.⁹

Two Medi-Cal services exist specifically as alternatives to a hospital. Crisis stabilisation is an unplanned, expedited service lasting less than 24 hours, delivered at a licensed facility or certified site.¹⁰ Crisis residential treatment is a structured programme in a non-institutional residential setting, "as an alternative to hospitalization," for someone in an acute episode without medical complications needing nursing care — available 24/7 and generally three months or less.¹¹ Ask the county line about both by name. We cannot tell you that any given crisis stabilisation unit takes walk-ins; that is set facility by facility.

The peer warm line is not a crisis line, and it is not 24/7. The California Peer-Run Warm Line is 855-600-9276, call or text, staffed 7am–11pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and 8am–10pm Thursday, with no weekend hours listed on the operator's page.¹² It is for the hours when you need a person, not an emergency. More on warm lines →

If police do come

A mobile crisis team is not a guarantee against an involuntary hold. Designated members of a mobile crisis team are among the people California law authorises to take someone into custody for up to 72 hours, alongside peace officers and county-designated professionals.¹³ Calling mobile crisis makes a police-led encounter less likely. It does not make a hold impossible. The state's own guidance calls responding without law enforcement a best practice "unless special safety concerns warrant inclusion," and where an officer does come, the officer does not count toward the two-person team.²

If a hold does happen, two provisions cut in the person's favour. The facility must assess whether they "can be properly served without being detained," and if so must offer services on a voluntary basis; and where someone is found in need of services but not admitted, "all available alternative services… shall be offered."¹³ What a 5150 hold is, in full →

Do this before you need it

  1. Save your county's crisis line in your phone, under a name you will find at 3am. Get it here →
  2. Ask that line, today, one question: "Do you dispatch a mobile crisis team, and is this the number to call for it?" Write down the answer.
  3. If the person has Medi-Cal, say so when you call — the mobile crisis benefit runs through the county behavioral health system.
  4. If there is a weapon, an overdose, or a medical emergency, call 911. Say the words "mental health crisis" and ask whether a crisis team can respond with them.
  5. 988 is free, and you do not have to be suicidal to use it.

Sources

  1. 42 U.S.C. §1396w-6, added by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 §9813 — the state option for "qualifying community-based mobile crisis intervention services," available during a five-year period ending 31 March 2027 — uscode.house.gov; Welfare & Institutions Code §14132.57, added by SB 184 (Stats. 2022, Ch. 47), under which the benefit is delivered "exclusively through a Medi-Cal behavioral health delivery system" — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. California's state plan amendment took effect 1 January 2023.
  2. California Department of Health Care Services Behavioral Health Information Notice 23-025, "Medi-Cal Mobile Crisis Services Benefit Implementation," 19 June 2023 — the 24/7/365 requirement, the two-provider team with naloxone and assessment capability, the 60-minute urban and 120-minute rural response standards with rural defined as fewer than 50 people per square mile, the 72-hour follow-up, the single published dispatch number, the exclusion of hospital and facility settings, coverage "prior to determination of a mental health or SUD diagnosis," and the best-practice statement on responding without law enforcement accompaniment — dhcs.ca.gov. Federal team requirements at 42 U.S.C. §1396w-6(b)(2)–(3); note federal law requires only a "timely" response, with no number attached.
  3. DHCS Mobile Crisis frequently asked questions — "The clock starts when a crisis line operator has determined a member requires a mobile crisis response" — dhcs.ca.gov.
  4. 42 U.S.C. §1396w-6(a) and Welfare & Institutions Code §14132.57(e), both running to 31 March 2027; DHCS trailer bill fact sheet, 2026 Governor's Budget, proposing that after that date "counties are not required to provide community-based mobile crisis response services" — dhcs.ca.gov. Proposed, not enacted.
  5. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 988 frequently asked questions — "Beyond that, they will not know who you are or where you are located"; georouting "without including the caller's precise location information"; routing otherwise by "the first six digits (area code and prefix) of the caller's phone number, regardless of the actual location of the caller"; and that in rare situations 911 "may be asked to initiate a precise geolocation lookup" — samhsa.gov.
  6. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, "By the Numbers": "Less than two percent of 988 Lifeline calls involve emergency services… over half of these emergency dispatches occur with the caller's consent." Retrieved 17 August 2026; the page carries no measurement period.
  7. SAMHSA, 988 frequently asked questions, as above.
  8. Government Code §§53123.1–53123.6, the Miles Hall Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Act, added by AB 988 (Stats. 2022, Ch. 747) — duties on the Office of Emergency Services (§53123.2) and the Health and Human Services Agency (§53123.3), the 988 fund and surcharge (§53123.4; Revenue & Taxation Code §41020), and the "alternative to a response from law enforcement" language appearing at §53123.3(b)(9) as a required topic of recommendations — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. The resulting plan: California Health & Human Services Agency, "Building California's Comprehensive 988-Crisis System," 31 December 2024.
  9. Cal. Code Regs. tit. 9, §1810.405(b)–(d) — the 24/7 toll-free line with language capability, 24/7 availability of services for an urgent condition, and referral by self or by others including schools, family members and law enforcement.
  10. Cal. Code Regs. tit. 9, §1810.210, and the DHCS Specialty Mental Health Services billing manual — crisis stabilisation as an unplanned, expedited service of less than 24 hours, delivered at a licensed 24-hour facility, hospital-based outpatient programme, or a certified provider site.
  11. Cal. Code Regs. tit. 9, §1810.208 — crisis residential treatment "in a non-institutional residential setting which provides a structured program as an alternative to hospitalization… available 24 hours a day, seven days a week"; the DHCS billing manual describes it as short term, three months or less.
  12. Mental Health Association of San Francisco, California Peer-Run Warm Line — number and hours as published on the operator's own page, retrieved 17 August 2026; the operator states hours are subject to change — mentalhealthsf.org.
  13. Welfare & Institutions Code §5150(a), which lists "designated members of a mobile crisis team" among those who may take a person into custody, and §5150(c)–(d) on serving a person without detention and offering all available alternative services — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.

Everything above was read on the statute, regulation or state guidance on 17 August 2026. This page describes what the system is required to do; it cannot tell you what will happen in your county on a given night. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

In crisis? Call or text 988 — free, 24/7.