What is 988 and How Does it Work?

Suicide does not see race, does not see ethnicity. It happens in every single race, ethnic population that exists. It is increasing and we need to come together to actually make a difference. The greatest impact would be just having a heart for people. Just knowing who you're talking to, getting to know that person, and basically not trying to solve their problem but trying to get them to see that it's not as bad as they think it is. In 2005, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number was initiated. It was the idea of a man who actually lost his wife to suicide after she was dealing with post-partum depression, and it was his vision that people would not have to search for the local number in their community to call. 988 is built on that same foundation. So, now, the big thing for-- that we all have to remember, like, when we're providing services to folks in crisis is that crisis is completely self-defined. If you're wondering if you should call, you should probably call. So, when a person calls 988, they're connected to a crisis counselor, and that crisis counselor is trained and is able to provide support. A caller can expect to discuss alternatives to suicide. Talk about coping skills, talk about resources and ways to move forward beyond the call. When you call on behalf of somebody else, what we do is we take every call like a crisis. So, we ask questions about who they're concerned about, but we're also at the same time providing emotional support to the third-party caller as well. So, there are a number of misconceptions about crisis chat and text. The conversations, they're not scripted. There is not--there are things that we might need to assess for. There might be steps we need to cover. But the conversation itself has the potential to be just as authentic, just as human between two people as, um, any other medium for communication. And when people are having one of the worst days of their life, they can call us, they can chat, they can text, um, and when they come out on the other side, they're feeling better. Life is hard. Being a human is hard. And we all go through things and struggle and if in my job I can provide one person with a safe space to talk and get the support they need, then that's a great job for me that day, so. There is a lot of people out there that are struggling with suicidal thoughts, that are struggling with suicidal behavior, that are struggling with hopelessness and depression and anxiety. It is normal and you don't have to feel ashamed for having those experiences, and there is help available.