Hey everybody! I have some wonderful
special guests here from Crisis Text Line
to share with us a little bit about what
Crisis Text Line does. I have Maggie
who is, would we call it a volunteer?
- A volunteer or crisis counselor.
- She would be the person, like if you texted, that's who you
could get and then we have Liz who,
what is your title actually?
- I'm the director of communications at Crisis Text Line.
- And Liz reached out to me a while ago
to see how we could further the
conversation and let all of you know
what a wonderful resource Crisis Text
Line is. So I just want to start off by asking
what is Crisis Text Line, because I've been using that term and
you're probably like "what the heck is this?"
- So Crisis Text Line is a free, 24/7, crisis service, all
through texts, so all you do is text 741-741
and you're connected with the trained
crisis counselor.
- Like Maggie! And so I know
that there's different things, does it matter what
we text? Like some people say "just start," or
could you just say "help," "hi"?
- Yeah. You can use a, you know, general keyword
like "hello" if you're not sure where to
start.
Or you can just dive right into it and let
us know what's going on.
- Okay, cool! And
are there, is there a cost associated with it?
- It is totally free.
- Isn't that awesome you guys? Obviously as long,
I'm sure, as long as you have, like, unlimited texts.
- Yes. So, if you have, it's pretty much just
standard data rates, so whatever you use to text your
friends, it's the same thing for us.
- Okay, very cool. And how do people go
about becoming a volunteer or crisis
text counselor? Would you call it that, maybe?
*laughing*
- A crisis counselor, yeah, so you
apply online. It's an application
that you fill out. Everything is done
from your computer so that's the
application, the training, the actual
volunteering is all done from your home computer.
- And Maggie, I'm just curious, what got you interested in this?
- Yeah, absolutely. So, I studied psychology in
school. I'm planning on going back to school to be a
counselor and right now I work in mental
health research at UCLA, so while I was
working at my job I felt like the
research aspect was really, you know, it
was fun and it was important and I loved
doing it on
the day-to-day, but I wanted to still be involved
in helping and reaching people. And so I actually
read an article in The New Yorker, two
years ago, about Crisis Text Line,
filled out the application the same day, and have
been a crisis counselor ever since.
- Awesome.
And the training, because I know a lot of people wonder, are you
a robot? Who is this? Was the training, did you
feel like it was really rigorous? How many
hours are involved? It's kind of both of you.
- Yeah, absolutely. So I've been involved in kind of crisis
support and psychology things probably
since I was about 14 and this was a
really really rigorous training. It was about
34 hours when I did it two years ago and
it's been updated and changed since. I'm
definitely not a robot, I get that
question a lot, but basically they take the,
the online training takes you through learning
how to listen, learning how to ask
important questions about exploring
what's going on with the texters, how
to really listen, empathize, speak with them
in a way that that doesn't feel robotic.
So that I can best help
whoever is reaching out in whatever
situation that they're in.
- Yeah that's really great. And I think that it's such a cool
resource available. Where do we have to
live? Is there any limitation to, because I have world,
you know, around the world viewers.
Where is it available? I know you're expanding
- Yeah. So it's available right
now just in the US. But we're expanding soon
to Canada, the UK, and beyond.
- Yay!
- So, stay tuned.
- And do you have bilingual?
- Right now it is just English, but we're working on
expanding that as well.
- Okay. That's very exciting. And so I will
keep you posted, follow me on Twitter for everything,
and I'll put the links to all of Crisis
Text Line's information so you can find
out when that happens if you are outside
of the US but I think that that's just really,
it's such an amazing resource you guys.
And if you are struggling it's 24-7.
- Yeah. It's 24-7,
and also, I think a common misconception
is that it's just suicide.
We cover all crisis issues, so it can be
eating disorder, it can be abuse, it could be
drug-related.
Anything you feel like is a crisis in that moment we
respond to you.
- And I think one of one of
the best things about it being
text-based, a lot of people who feel
anxious talking about their problems in
front of other people or who are in a
situation where you you can't physically
call someone you know if you're in the
lunchroom and you're being bullied you
can, just looks like you're playing on
your phone and you can be reaching
someone who can help you and we're
always here for that.
- Yeah and I think that's a really great thing
because one of the number one complaints
or questions even is "I don't know how to
tell somebody face-to-face" cause, you
know, in real life it can be kind of
scary and, you know, it can be nice to be
a little bit anonymous and text someone that's
supportive and trained to be able to be
empathic and understand where you're
coming from.
So if someone is suicidal how do you
kind of triage that. Is there something, because I
know a lot of my viewers are like, "Well, I called
the suicide hotline," totally separate
from Crisis Text Line, "but I called the
suicide hotline and they call the police."
so I'm sure you have some kind of safety
measures, cause in all, all in all you guys that's just to keep
you safe.
- So what is the protocol?
- Calling the police is always a last resort. We really want
to help the person's safety plan get from
a hot moment to a cool calm. The only
time that we do call the police is if
you're at imminent risk to yourself or
someone else. So that's not just having ideation,
but it's also having the means, the plan, the
timeframe.
- Yeah. And I always talk about creating safety
plans with my clients if I worry that
they're a threat to themselves, or even to someone
else or you know anything like that is
happening and I'll put a link to the description of that
video, a link in the description for that
video, so you can check it out because I
think that that's kind of part of it, is that
a lot of us have thoughts, and know that those are completely
normal. It's just how you manage them, and reaching
out sooner rather than later because
there are ways that we can help, and assist.
If someone is concerned or feels like
they're in crisis, like how would you define what,
what you cover and why someone should
reach out?
- So anything that you feel like is a
crisis we consider a crisis, but we're not
meant to replace the therapist or a best
friend.
It's really for when you're in that heat
of the moment.
And then we help you to safety plan and find those
next steps.
- Okay, awesome. And how often, I don't know, do you text?
Like with people for really long periods
of time? How often do people text in?
- Yeah, so
if, if you're in a crisis, you know,
we are always here for you
It's definitely not meant to replace the
long-term therapist or kind of up a plan
moving forward. But we are always there
to help you move from that hot moment
to somewhere that you can find the
resources. We'll help you find resources
that are best for you. Help you problem
solve, think about the best way to move
forward.
- So kind of slowing it down. I always
talk, I'm a DBT therapist, and so I
talk about moving from, like,
emotion mind to wise mind, so know that, like,
you're not... getting out of that panic or
that extreme into kind of a more not
reactionary but responding abilities. So we
can like to step back. It's what we're all
hoping to do, right? Take a breather and then
we can figure out what our next, best steps
are moving forward.
- Well, and that's a cool thing
about texts, honestly, is that if you are in
that heat of the moment you might not
remember what a friend or therapist is
saying to you. We hear a lot of the times, you know, if you're
having a panic attack, you might blackout, not
remember and you can actually go back
through your texts, and see exactly what
the counselor said to you later on.
- Yeah, and that's a great resource because it
is true, like, especially even if I'm like
maxed out, I'll have full on phone conversations
with Sean, and be like, "what the hell did I say?"
I have no idea, because I was like, doing five things at once!
So if we're in a panic or we feel like in that hot moment,
that's a really great way to keep track of
it. To be able to go back and see the tools
and techniques that they offered. I hear
from a lot of you that you enjoy our
community and helping others. And I always talk
about how important is to share
experience and to reach out to other
Kinions in our community to help all of
us get better together and I know that
there's kind of a community around the
volunteers at Crisis Text Line?
- Yeah absolutely. So I think that's
actually one of my favorite parts
and it's it's definitely one of the
things that's helped me be a crisis
counselor for two years.
I'm doing it alone on your couch, on your
computer, could could be very lonely,
especially because you're not really
in a, in a building communicating with
people but there's a Crisis Text Line
Facebook group and we have about 2,000,
3,000 members almost?
- Yeah there's almost 3000
trained volunteer crisis counselor that are actively on a platform right now.
- And it's, and when you're
crisis counseling there's always other
people on the platform with you, checking
in to see how you're doing, giving you
suggestions on how you can do your best
to reach out the person that you're
communicating with. And then even if
you're not on the shift, reaching out on
the Facebook group, there's
always people talking about what kinds
of things they need to do for self-care
or if they have been doubting themselves
after a really hard shift, everyone is
there to support them, encourage them and
kind of cheer them on, so that they can come
back in and do what needs to be done to help people.
- So let's say that I wanted
to become a crisis counselor and work
for Crisis Text Line, how do people go about it?
Are you still looking for volunteers?
- We're always looking for volunteers. As
long as you have up to 4 hours a week and
access to the internet. You don't have to
work in mental health. As long as you are
invested in reaching out to other people
and learning the skills to crisis
counsel, you're definitely welcome.
- Well that's awesome. I will put a link in the
description so that you can check it out if
you're interested in becoming a crisis
counselor. But thank you so much for
coming on and letting us all know about
this wonderful resource and like Liz was
telling me earlier, often when we're in crisis,
we don't think of who to reach out to. We
can freeze and we can struggle to know
what to do so I encourage you to save
this number.
Better yet, share this video. Share
741-741, because you never
know who in your life is struggling and
we as a community can help more people
get the support they need when they
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see you next time. Bye!