How Crisis Text Line Expands Support Before Crisis Escalates with Jana French, Public Sector Partnerships Director at Crisis Text Line

I didn't realize about the story coming together and, and the founding.

Just amazing, and really meeting a huge need.

Gina, I'd like to ask something that I tend to ask a lot of our guests, and I think you'll relate, and that is, I understand that your model combines technology with trained human connection.

So what does Crisis Text Line's experience really teach us about where tech can expand access to quality behavioral healthcare, but where does that human connection really m- remain essential?

There's a couple of pieces there that I think are really interesting.

The first is that we've always been a completely remote organization for our line.

When I started back in 2019, we had an office in Manhattan that, like, I went to and our CFO went to, but our volunteers who are answering the conversations have always been remote, as have been the clinical supervisors overseeing those conversations.

So since 2013, we've been able to use technology to really cover nationwide and help people as fast as they need it.

Through the platform that we've built, we are able to train volunteers, who can be anyone across the country.

Doesn't matter their background.

They just have to be 18, and they have to complete our training.

The training is about 15 hours, self-paced, and it covers things like active listening, empathy, collaborative problem-solving, and risk assessment, the basic kinds of communication skills that you need to help somebody in crisis, but then also that you need to be a good friend, to be a good employee, to be a good partner, to be a good citizen, and a good community member.

So we've been able to really expand through technology, teaching those skills to people, and then they take conversations on our platform and really put them into action.

And why we can do that is because the platform allows our clinical supervisors to oversee the conversations in real time.

So let's say a volunteer has a conversation with somebody who is in a, having an active suicidal plan.

That's going to get a much higher look from our supervisors, and they're going to be the ones to say, "Okay, this is how we're gonna deescalate this person," or, "If we're not able to deescalate, what we're going to do does require more expertise." Or if the volunteer is newer and they're a little bit unsure about how to talk to this person who's maybe dealing with an eating disorder, the supervisor is right there in the conversation with them to really help them navigate, and if they get stuck, give them advice.

It also has helped our volunteers connect with each other and learn from each other.

So what we've actually found, and what we started tracking over the last few years at Crisis Text Line, is that our service, while we are, have been tracking that we are helping texters and people who are in crisis, we're actually helping the mental health of our volunteers as well.

So not only are they able to get the skills that they need to be good communicators, they are getting help with their mental health.

What we know is that we're not only just helping them with getting these communication skills, we are also helping their mental health.

So we found that 98% of our volunteers can provide mental health support outside of volunteering, so they're helping people in their community.

They're talking to friends who are going through hard times and helping them deescalate without needing to use Crisis Text Line, without needing to use a doctor or anything like that.

We know that 91% can deescalate tense situations outside of volunteering, and 95 said that they spread the knowledge to help reduce the stigma around reaching out for mental health help, and that's all just from volunteering with us, which we're able to do, like I said, because of the platform that we built.

So that's one way that we've really been using technology to make sure that Mental health help doesn't always look like getting into a car and going somewhere or getting into a therapy session, but being able to rely on the people in your lives for some support as well.

That's so great and makes me want to get involved, and definitely gonna be asking you about how folks in our audience can do that.