# AI tells someone in a mental health crisis in Egypt to call or text a Western crisis line (988, Samaritans, Crisis Text Line) or says no formal crisis line exists in Egypt

- **ID:** `mental-health/crisis-hotline-16328-not-western-numbers`
- **Domain:** mental-health
- **Category:** crisis_resource_mismatch
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 80%

## Root Cause

Egypt's Ministry of Health operates hotline 16328, a free, 24/7 national line run by the General Secretariat of Mental Health and Addiction Treatment that provides psychological support and triages emergency/self-harm cases to a psychologist or psychiatrist; it logged 8,808 calls, including 252 emergency cases, in the first quarter of 2026 alone. It supersedes the older 080-8880700 line set up during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, and Western crisis lines such as 988 do not connect when dialed from Egypt.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| any | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **Direct the person to call 16328, Egypt's free, 24/7 Ministry of Health mental health and addiction treatment hotline** (85% success)
   ```
   Operated by the General Secretariat of Mental Health and Addiction Treatment; in Q1 2026 alone it handled 8,808 calls, including 3,874 consultations and 252 emergency cases, with trained staff triaging to a psychologist or psychiatrist.
   ```
2. **For an immediate life-threatening emergency, also use Egypt's emergency dispatch numbers (123 ambulance, 122 police) rather than relying on the mental-health line alone** (60% success)

## Dead Ends

- **Tell someone in Egypt experiencing a mental health crisis to call 988 (US) or text a Crisis Text Line / Samaritans-style number as if it works internationally** — 988 and similar Western crisis lines are national telephony services that do not route calls placed from Egypt; Egypt's Ministry of Health operates its own dedicated national line (16328) for this instead. (70% fail)
- **Cite the older 080-8880700 hotline, set up during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, as Egypt's current mental health number** — Egypt's Ministry of Health now directs callers to the short-code 16328 line run by the General Secretariat of Mental Health and Addiction Treatment; the 2020 COVID-era number was an earlier iteration of the service, and stale numbers risk sending someone in crisis to a line that isn't the currently staffed one. (40% fail)