211 system seeks expansion

PIERRE — The Senate State Affairs Committee got a thorough overview of the state’s 211 system on Jan. 23 before deciding to hold the bill for a fiscal impact statement.

SB8 would expand the 211 system statewide. Sen. Jim Saltzer, R-Sioux Falls, said the system currently it exists in 16 counties covering about 63 percent of the state’s population.

Saltzer said it would take about $300,000 to expand the system and he asked that the committee approve the measure and then send it to the joint appropriations committee where the bill’s backers would try to negotiate for funding.

Call center executive director Janet Kittams explained to the committee that the number 211 was set aside by the Federal Communications Commission in 2000 and implemented in South Dakota in 2001.

South Dakota calls to 211 rings into a call center in Sioux Falls, Kittams said, where operators are trained to help callers with questions about suicide prevention, crisis assistance, domestic violence, various forms of abuse, mental health counseling, volunteer opportunities and finding housing, food and shelter.

Of the 44,000 calls 211 got last year, Kittams said, 2,000 were specific to suicide and 16 percent dealt with mental health issues.

On suicide calls, Kittams said her operators are trained to “de-escalate” the crisis to the point where law enforcement won’t have to be called.

Funding for the expansion is an issue according to Sen. Deb Soholt, R-Sioux Falls.

“Our major concern was budget,” Soholt said.

If the state pays the $280,000 to fund the expansion, other communities that pay for the service may wonder why they have to pay and the new communities don’t. Soholt said the funds from the original 211 communities could be repurposed to fund mental health access.

Committee chairman Bob Ewing, R-Spearfish, said the bill would be held over until the Legislative Research Council could provide a fiscal note on the costs associated with the expansion.