A crisis hotline is expanding services across the state of Arkansas to help support teenage mental health. It’s all part of the upcoming rollout of AR Teen Connect in early 2026 by the Arkansas Crisis Center (ACC).
As Little Rock Public Radio reports, the center’s board president, Joshua Gonzales, says as they provide more services they also learn more about which age groups are drawn to the various modes of communication. He says most people seeking help from their 24/7 988 Lifeline by phone are over the age of 18. And the center takes calls from all 75 counties.
But Gonzales noticed how the demographics dramatically changed when the center opened-up a text line. He says now a solid majority of the texts the center receives come from children and teenagers. “And so we had all these children texting us. And it was just; it was very shocking by changing the medium of communication that there would be that much of a switch. We knew that there would be a small one, but not a 65% difference.”
The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas has given the crisis center $250,000 to fund the new AR Teen Connect” program over the next two years. Youth support specialists will be trained to answer texts and calls from teenagers experiencing issues like loneliness or isolation, but aren’t yet in a crisis.
During the 40 year history of the ACC, its leaders say it “has offered a lifeline to people in distress,” and that, “On average, the call-and-text line operators field just under 1,000 calls per month.” That's according to figures available on the agency’s own website, arcrisis.org.
Arkansas finds itself among the bottom-ranked states for teenage mental health, blamed in part, on so many of its residets living in rural areas, often with fewer access points for insurance and mental health care. In assessing the overall needs statewide, the nonprofit Mental Health America released its yearly report for the 10th year in a row, entitled, The State of Mental Health in America on October 1, 2025. Researchers analyzed the latest data available, which came mostly from 2022 and 2023, with some from 2024. Arkansas ranked 46th in the country for teenagers’ mental health.
And in that timespan, scientists found a 3% drop nationally in teenage major depressive episodes and a 2% drop in serious thoughts of suicide. The graphic above, from Mental Health America’s most recent study, shows young people are still struggling in 2024.
Researchers give much of the credit for the recent improvements to better funded outreach programs. That includes Arkansas’ 988 and other crisis services, helping to connect young people with mental health professionals much earlier in the suicide prevention process.
