- Where are they located?
Carter Geers knows when people need help.
- Do they know about the resources in their area?
He coaches call takers
who are talking to people in the midst of a mental health crisis.
It's something he understands because like many of us,
he's had that experience too.
(emotional piano music)
- I have struggled with suicidal ideation in the past,
and I've been in situations where I just I felt hopeless.
( sound of typing)
- The history of detoxes.
The calls are not easy to handle.
- We get people coming in that are going through the worst of the worst.
- Things, saying like killing yourself today.
But now Carter and dozens of other specialists,
plus those calling in crisis, have some newfound support.
- Crisis Connections, this is Holly.
Crisis Connections is one of three agencies across Washington state
now answering calls in 250 languages as part of the Nationwide
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline launched in July of this year.
(uplifting music)
Nine, eight, eight is a free, confidential line,
you can call or text for you or for a friend. A replacement
for local or national suicide hotlines and other help lines.
And our state has helped
answer the call by providing some much needed funding for the program.
I worked on a number of suicide prevention bills, and this one.
This one will make the greatest difference to save lives.
With the 2021 passage of House Bill 1477.
Lawmakers imposed a tax on phone and Internet lines
to start building out an integrated mental health crisis system,
a system that Rochelle Williams wants to make as inclusive as possible.
You know, two ears. One heart.
Natives helping Natives.
Williams and enrolled member of the Ehattesaht First Nation
and also a Tulalip tribal descendant is the tribal program manager
at Volunteers of America, Western Washington in Everett,
which serves as another of our state's 988 call centers.
- Let me get you in the right place.
Hold on.
Press 4 after you call 988
and you'll be connected to the Native and Strong Crisis Lifeline.
Our country's first helpline made for and run by native and indigenous people.
- I know that there is a lot of mistrust in our communities.
I know that a lot of native people are not trusting of a lot of different systems.
We also believe sometimes that tribal programs fail quite often.
The reason for this, I think, is because we're missing that cultural connection.
We're missing being connected to our own people.
A team of 16 native people will run Native and Strong
to try to respond to a sobering statistic.
American Indian and Alaska Native people have the highest rate
of suicide of any ethnicity in the U.S..
What we're hoping is to save a lot of lives, even with all of this work.
If we saved one, if somebody called in
that saved their life, that's that we want.
- what insurance do you...
988 Program administrators also want to push back on some misinformation.
They are not.
Geo locating your phone when you call in.
We do not have the ability to trace,
nor are we interested in tracing anyone's call.
Michelle McDaniel is CEO of Crisis Connections
and says only when someone calls 988 with an urgent, life
threatening emergency, an overdose of pills for example,
would an active rescue protocol go into effect.
In that situation, if possible, a 988 operator
would be authorized to track a caller's number through caller ID.
- And then we would contact 911 and say, Hey, here's the situation.
We're on a call with someone who reached out to us.
They have taken pills.
We're worried about them.
(ambulance siren)
Emergency responders would handle things from there.
But Williams says active rescues occur
with only 0.08% of the calls that come into 988.
Most people are able to simply talk out their issues with a call specialist.
80% of the calls that we receive on 988 are resolved
at that crisis line level.
But that leaves 20% of cases not resolved.
And that's what Michele Roberts is working to change.
Long term, our goal is to build out the rest of the crisis support system.
Roberts Is the assistant secretary for prevention and Community Health
at the Washington State Department of Health and says,
beyond 24/7 call centers, people in crisis need two main things.
Someone to come and somewhere to go.
Someone to come would mean a non-police response team for people
in crisis and somewhere to go would be a walk in mental health
receiving facility to replace overburdened emergency rooms.
- If you have a crisis and you call 988.,
you can get a next day appointment with a counselor if you need one to get support in person.
That part of the system is set to launch in January of 2023
as mental health care needs continue to grow around our state.
(emotional piano music)
Mental health crises are hard to explain and hard to respond to.
But with a new, inclusive 988 system and more resources
coming to our state, the hope is to erase any stigma around
seeking out help and to make those crises a lot easier to bear.
- We're going to keep building
and improving what we're doing so that we can continue to support people.
We're not always going to
have a magic wand, but we will always have an open ear.