Veteran Crisis Support: Dial 988, Press 1 - Help Is Available Right Now

The Veterans Crisis Line is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

• Call: dial 988, then press 1.
• Text: 838255.
• Chat: VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.

If you use a TTY, call 800-799-4889. Outside the United States, use the number for your region on the overseas calling page: Europe +1 844-702-5495, Pacific +1 844-702-5493, Central and Southwest Asia +1 855-422-7719, Africa +1 888-482-6054, South America +1 866-989-9599, or DSN 988 on base. Chat is the most reliable option abroad.

Who can use it: "Veterans, service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and those who support them." That means any veteran, enrolled or not, rated or not, whatever your discharge; current service members, including Guard and Reserve; and family, friends and caregivers worried about a veteran. If you served, this line is for you, even if you do not call yourself a veteran. You do not need to be suicidal to call.

In immediate danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room, VA or not. For a suicidal crisis, cost is settled. Under the Veterans Comprehensive Prevention, Access to Care, and Treatment (COMPACT) Act of 2020, codified at 38 U.S.C. 1720J, VA must furnish or pay for emergent suicide care for an eligible veteran in acute suicidal crisis, and "may not charge the eligible individual for any cost." The policy took effect January 17, 2023. Treatment works, and this is the fastest door to it.

VA's COMPACT Act page says enrollment is not required. You may be eligible if at least 1 of these is true:

• You were discharged after more than 24 months of active service under conditions other than dishonorable.
• You served more than 100 days under a combat exclusion or in support of a contingency operation, including as a reservist, or
• You experienced sexual assault, sexual battery or sexual harassment while serving.

What VA covers: emergency care at any VA or non-VA facility, inpatient or crisis residential care for up to 30 days, outpatient care for up to 90 days, medications and transportation. The statute allows an extension while the crisis continues. Community providers should notify VA within 72 hours at 844-724-7842. If a bill arrives anyway, VA says to call 877-881-7618 (TTY: 711). The emergency room coverage guide explains how to handle a bill.

VA's description: "A caring, qualified responder will listen and help." The call is free and confidential. VA says your personal information and phone number "will be used only for referral to local care with your permission, in case of emergency, or as required by law." Support does not end with the conversation: responders can connect you with local resources, including the Suicide Prevention Coordinator at your nearest VA medical center, for follow-up care. Calling does not require VA enrollment and does not enroll you in anything.

All official VA or Department of Defense lines. None requires enrollment.

Source: https://www.va.gov/health-care/health-needs-conditions/mental-health/, https://department.va.gov/homeless/, https://www.militaryonesource.mil/, checked September 2026.

Vet Centers are community counseling centers, separate from VA hospitals, with free, confidential individual, group, couples and family counseling and no enrollment. Eligibility includes combat theater service and military sexual trauma (MST). The mental health services guide lists every other route into VA care.

The Veterans Crisis Line's signs of crisis page lists 2 groups of signs.

Call 911 or 988 then press 1 right away if you or someone else is:

• Thinking about hurting or killing yourself, or looking for ways to
• Talking about death, dying or suicide
• Acting in self-destructive ways, such as substance misuse

Reach out to the crisis line if you notice:

• Feeling sad, hopeless, anxious or agitated most of the time
• Sleeping all the time, or hardly at all
• Feeling there is no reason to live, or excessive guilt, shame or failure
• Rage, anger, or violent behavior like punching a wall
• Rising alcohol or drug use, or risky activities
• Losing interest in hobbies, work or people; pulling away from friends and family
• Giving away valued items, making a will, "getting affairs in order"

These signs have many causes: pain, money trouble, a relationship ending, leaving the service, grief. They mean it is time to talk, not that anything has been decided.

The crisis line's advice for family and friends:

1. Ask directly. VA says "It's okay to ask directly: 'Are you thinking about taking your own life?'"
2. Listen more than you speak. Stay calm, do not judge, and let them decide how much to share.
3. Stay with them, and call together. Dial 988 then press 1 with the person, or text 838255. In immediate danger, call 911.
4. Put time and distance between them and the means of harm. VA's Keep It Secure program explains why: "Creating time and space between crisis and action provides crucial moments to face life's challenges." Many crises are brief. Lock firearms and store them securely, or ask a trusted person to hold them for a while. Lock up medications and keep only what is needed at home. Any VA facility will give a veteran a free cable gun lock; VA's words are "Just ask."
5. Call the Caregiver Support Line at 855-260-3274 (Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET). VA deactivated its Coaching into Care line in 2024 and routes those calls here; staff can talk through how to raise treatment with a veteran who is not ready for care. If you are also the caregiver, see the caregiver support programs guide.

A crisis passing is the start of care, not the end.

• Make a safety plan. VA's Safety Plan app builds a step-by-step plan: your warning signs, what helps, who to call, and how to make your surroundings safer.
• Get same-day care. Every VA medical center offers same-day mental health services, including walk-in appointments. VA says to "call or walk in to any VA medical center—anytime, day or night," whatever your discharge status. The mental health services guide covers how to start and what it costs. If PTSD is part of the picture, the PTSD treatment options guide explains the therapies VA rates most effective. PTSD is treatable, and so are depression, anxiety and substance use.
• Hear from other veterans. Make the Connection is VA's site where veterans and their families talk on video about their experiences and recovery. Counseling for family members is in the family counseling services guide; non-emergency care at night is in the after-hours care guide.