The new three-digit 988 number will make it easier for people in rural communities to access crisis intervention, Jeff Winton, founder and chairman of Rural Minds, a Maryville, New York, non-profit dedicated to helping rural residents with their mental health issues, told the Daily Yonder. “Mental illness and substance use disorder in rural areas have been growing exponentially even before Covid hit,” he said. “It’s not seen as an illness. It’s seen as a character flaw. It’s seen as something you should be able to just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get over… And until such time that we get people to consider it an illness, we’re going to be hamstrung and this epidemic is going to continue to grow.”