Latest / Groove with Portia / Who Do You Reach for When You're Not Okay?
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: Welcome to Group Porsche, the podcast that uncovers the hidden
- 0:08Speaker 1: treasures within grief. I'm your host, Porsche the Producer, and
- 0:12Speaker 1: I'm inviting you to join me on a transformative journey
- 0:15Speaker 1: where we were exchange laughter, of course the best medicine
- 0:18Speaker 1: of them all, reflect on cherished memories, Remember that time
- 0:21Speaker 1: that the little boy grabbed my hand instead of his
- 0:23Speaker 1: mother's at the amusement park yikes, And of course, discover
- 0:25Speaker 1: gratitude while navigating one of the life's hardest challenges lost.
- 0:30Speaker 1: So get ready to grow with me, Porsche the Producer,
- 0:34Speaker 1: let's dive in. Why Hello everyone, and welcome back to
- 0:46Speaker 1: Groul Porsche. I am your host, Porsche Booker, and as always,
- 0:49Speaker 1: don't forget to like, share and subscribe to keep it
- 0:52Speaker 1: with all things Grew with Porsche. One of the things
- 0:55Speaker 1: that I like to do is share different pieces of
- 0:58Speaker 1: my journey on social media, and earlier this year, I
- 1:01Speaker 1: got to meet one of my mental health heroes, mister
- 1:03Speaker 1: Kevin Hines. Those of you who know Kevin's story, he
- 1:06Speaker 1: was the individual who survived jumping off the Golden Gate
- 1:09Speaker 1: Bridge back I believe in two thousand and when I
- 1:12Speaker 1: went to hear him speak this year. He said something
- 1:16Speaker 1: very important to all the individuals in the room. He said,
- 1:19Speaker 1: how many of you would have stopped me and asked
- 1:23Speaker 1: me if I was okay? If you saw me crying
- 1:27Speaker 1: walking across that bridge, Let that sink in. How many
- 1:31Speaker 1: of us have seen it Kevin in our life but
- 1:35Speaker 1: we kept going anyway. How many of us have reached
- 1:39Speaker 1: out to others when we were struggling but we never
- 1:42Speaker 1: got a response. Let that sink in. So today's special
- 1:47Speaker 1: treat for all of you. Today, I'm going to be
- 1:50Speaker 1: joined by the CEO, Miss dinatre Heel of the Crisis
- 1:54Speaker 1: text Line, which is a nonprofit that is providing support
- 1:59Speaker 1: through chat texting and also the favorite app Whatsapped. So
- 2:03Speaker 1: welcome to group with Porsche, Miss Dina Trahio. Diana, how
- 2:07Speaker 1: are you today?
- 2:08Speaker 2: I am thrilled to be here with you of Coursha.
- 2:11Speaker 2: Thank you, Dina.
- 2:12Speaker 1: It's an honor. As I brought up before we jumped
- 2:14Speaker 1: on to start the conversation, you have the same last
- 2:18Speaker 1: name is my favorite music teacher from elementary school, mister
- 2:21Speaker 1: Harold Trihio. So I was like, oh, you're a second person.
- 2:23Speaker 2: I know.
- 2:23Speaker 1: I don't know if there's any relation We'll have to
- 2:25Speaker 1: figure that out later on. So, Dina, for an audience
- 2:29Speaker 1: who's tuning in, mental health has become a conversation that's
- 2:35Speaker 1: always been needed, but now it seems that with the
- 2:39Speaker 1: changing of social media, it's become more open. But at
- 2:44Speaker 1: the same time, Dina, I'm curious, because you're in this
- 2:47Speaker 1: twenty four to seven no pun intended. I wanted to
- 2:51Speaker 1: know where are you seeing progress in conversations and dialogue
- 2:56Speaker 1: about mental wellness struggles and also where is there still
- 3:00Speaker 1: room for improvement, especially amongst youth, because texting tends to
- 3:06Speaker 1: be an easier go to for some overplacing a phone call.
- 3:11Speaker 2: Mm hm oh, there's a lot in that question.
- 3:13Speaker 3: And let me start Porsche by sharing that a little
- 3:16Speaker 3: bit of a trigger warning, right. I know that you
- 3:19Speaker 3: do such a beautiful job of holding space for growth
- 3:22Speaker 3: and grief. But because we run a crisis line and
- 3:26Speaker 3: you just shared Kevin Hines a story. Who I love
- 3:28Speaker 3: Kevin by the way, he's brilliant, having had the blessing
- 3:32Speaker 3: of meeting him a few times. We're going to talk
- 3:34Speaker 3: a little bit about some hard mental health things, including suicide.
- 3:37Speaker 3: So if there are some folks that that's hard for
- 3:40Speaker 3: I just want to make sure that.
- 3:42Speaker 2: People are prepared for that.
- 3:44Speaker 3: So, yes, the mental health challenges are getting worse, not better,
- 3:51Speaker 3: and that is everything from loneliness. Right, So the surge
- 3:55Speaker 3: in general in the US has declared that loneliness itself
- 3:59Speaker 3: is an epidemic and that it can be as severe
- 4:02Speaker 3: as smoking sixteen cigarettes a day on the human body,
- 4:06Speaker 3: like literally your physical body, in addition to the overlapping
- 4:11Speaker 3: and compelling drive. It's not the same as mental health challenges,
- 4:15Speaker 3: but they amplify each other, right, So like suicidal ideation, anxiety,
- 4:21Speaker 3: all of those things are amplified by loneliness, and loneliness
- 4:23Speaker 3: amplifies them. So they're growing together. And social media and
- 4:28Speaker 3: AI and technology, they in some ways can provide us
- 4:32Speaker 3: access to the resources, but they also, instead of helping
- 4:37Speaker 3: us stay connected, often help us or make us feel
- 4:41Speaker 3: more lonely. But the good thing high level is more
- 4:45Speaker 3: and more people are knowing about crisis support, especially here
- 4:47Speaker 3: in the US if we keep it. That's not necessarily
- 4:50Speaker 3: true globally, but we'll just say in the US, but
- 4:53Speaker 3: we are still drastically, drastically underfunded to have access to
- 4:58Speaker 3: ongoing support actually in our highest need.
- 5:01Speaker 1: Communities, yeah, one hundred percent DNA. And I'm glad you
- 5:05Speaker 1: brought up loneliness because I don't think people really truly
- 5:09Speaker 1: understand what that means, what that looks like. People may
- 5:13Speaker 1: think it's kind of the same as practicing gratitude, where
- 5:16Speaker 1: you're putting on rose colored glasses and saying, oh, everything's
- 5:19Speaker 1: fine when the house behind you or your house you're
- 5:22Speaker 1: sitting in is burning down. Well, loneliness is that same
- 5:26Speaker 1: thing where it's not just I'm lonely because I have
- 5:29Speaker 1: nothing to do, it's I'm disconnected from the world around me.
- 5:34Speaker 1: Social media is showing all these different glimpses of what
- 5:39Speaker 1: people's lives appear to be, but that's not really the reality.
- 5:43Speaker 1: And yeah, I may be connected to i'll say, twenty
- 5:47Speaker 1: thousand followers, but how many of them really know who
- 5:51Speaker 1: I am outside of what I post on social media?
- 5:54Speaker 1: And I'm curious, Dina, what do you think has sparked
- 5:58Speaker 1: this influx of lonely is considering that the technological advancements
- 6:04Speaker 1: have created social media, they've created zoom, especially during COVID,
- 6:10Speaker 1: They've allowed us to be connected on such a shorter
- 6:16Speaker 1: span than before.
- 6:18Speaker 3: Yeah, so that is a long academic answer, like, there
- 6:22Speaker 3: are all sorts of reasons driving this increase in loneliness,
- 6:26Speaker 3: but a couple of things. I mean, just let me
- 6:29Speaker 3: give an example also just how severe it is, and
- 6:32Speaker 3: then drive into some of the why so crisis techline.
- 6:36Speaker 3: We support about a million and a half conversations a
- 6:38Speaker 3: year in the US. Okay, While twenty percent of those
- 6:42Speaker 3: conversations are high risk around suicide and self harm, over
- 6:47Speaker 3: sixty percent of the folks texting or like texting in
- 6:52Speaker 3: and chatting with us say they don't have anyone else,
- 6:56Speaker 3: not a single other person to talk to, Okay, So
- 7:01Speaker 3: think about that, right, and so what drives that? I mean,
- 7:06Speaker 3: it's everything from the cancel culture and people being afraid
- 7:11Speaker 3: that if they share things, they're going to be judged.
- 7:14Speaker 3: So like us having a non judgmental service whoever you are,
- 7:18Speaker 3: wherever you are, that's okay, is really really important. But
- 7:23Speaker 3: it's also that we've lost the skills for how to
- 7:27Speaker 3: connect with each other, right, Like how do you ask questions?
- 7:32Speaker 3: How are you curious? How do you create human connection safely?
- 7:37Speaker 3: And we can talk more about it later, but that's
- 7:38Speaker 3: one of the things I'm most proud of with our
- 7:41Speaker 3: volunteer training because it's like we have to use technology
- 7:45Speaker 3: to retrain people how to make human connection.
- 7:49Speaker 1: And Dan, I'm glad you brought up again the technology
- 7:52Speaker 1: piece because we're all using it, whether it's AI, some
- 7:56Speaker 1: form of it, Chat, GBT, perplexity, Gemini, year fixture is
- 8:01Speaker 1: And I'm curious, Dina, with so many people utilizing AI
- 8:06Speaker 1: is not just their business analysts or a social media manager.
- 8:11Speaker 1: People are utilizing AI to express some of the things
- 8:15Speaker 1: that they may not share amongst their friends, their peers
- 8:19Speaker 1: because they don't want to be judged. They don't want
- 8:21Speaker 1: to be seen as weak. I can even say from
- 8:25Speaker 1: my own personal experience growing up in a very strong
- 8:28Speaker 1: woman led household, that the strong woman cape was the norm.
- 8:33Speaker 1: And at one point I had to say, this isn't
- 8:36Speaker 1: sustainable for me like it was for my great grandmother,
- 8:40Speaker 1: who is part of the Great generation. Then my mom
- 8:42Speaker 1: is a boomer, right, And I'm curious, Dina, how can
- 8:46Speaker 1: we find that balance of utilizing AI for what it
- 8:52Speaker 1: is but also making people realize that AI can't replace
- 8:58Speaker 1: still that human to human connection.
- 9:01Speaker 2: Oh again, huge topic here right, Like this is.
- 9:08Speaker 3: This people are the fastest growing way that AI chap
- 9:14Speaker 3: like is being used is really around mental health and
- 9:19Speaker 3: people and around this companionship because people are lonely and
- 9:23Speaker 3: they and they can talk to a computer without being
- 9:26Speaker 3: judged because that's how the computers are designed. They're designed
- 9:29Speaker 3: to keep you hooked, to keep you coming back. And
- 9:33Speaker 3: part of that means it's going to be a safe,
- 9:34Speaker 3: non judgmental space. I shouldn't say safe, I should say
- 9:38Speaker 3: a non judgmental space that is going to validate, validate you.
- 9:43Speaker 2: So that's as humans.
- 9:47Speaker 3: Of course, people are going to be attracted to that. Okay,
- 9:49Speaker 3: so those numbers are going to keep growing, but they stick.
- 9:54Speaker 3: Humans still need humans. So ultimately you may up young
- 10:00Speaker 3: people especially, but people of all ages.
- 10:03Speaker 2: They're talking to a computer.
- 10:05Speaker 3: But when they are wondering if their life is worth it,
- 10:10Speaker 3: if they should keep going on. Ultimately, if they're truly lonely,
- 10:15Speaker 3: a computer telling them their life is valuable is not
- 10:20Speaker 3: the same thing, right, Like, it just doesn't. It doesn't
- 10:23Speaker 3: doesn't hit the same right like when you know ultimately
- 10:26Speaker 3: that this is a computer but another human telling you,
- 10:30Speaker 3: and I'll tell you one of them number one things
- 10:32Speaker 3: that we see in our in our feedback from texters, Right,
- 10:36Speaker 3: so texters afterwards have an optional survey they can respond
- 10:39Speaker 3: to and they tell us feedback and demographics and and
- 10:44Speaker 3: one of the things that they do is they can
- 10:47Speaker 3: they can leave comments, and in those comments, one of
- 10:50Speaker 3: the most common things they share is how grateful they
- 10:54Speaker 3: are that the volunteers were here to support them, right
- 10:59Speaker 3: because it and it's very specific. It's not just that staff.
- 11:04Speaker 3: It's great to have another human, but these people are
- 11:07Speaker 3: not paid to take conversations. They are taking time out
- 11:12Speaker 3: of their everyday lives to be there when someone needs
- 11:16Speaker 3: to talk, when somebody is in crisis, and that means more.
- 11:21Speaker 3: And I always come back to this, I'm like, ultimately
- 11:25Speaker 3: humans still need humans. So will AI And does AI
- 11:29Speaker 3: provide some value? Well, yes, when it's monitored and safe,
- 11:35Speaker 3: right as safe as possible, because the reality is we
- 11:37Speaker 3: don't have enough mental health workers and society has lost
- 11:41Speaker 3: the ability to be in community with each other and
- 11:44Speaker 3: hold differences of opinion and all of those things that
- 11:47Speaker 3: make current society really complicated. But and AI can get
- 11:52Speaker 3: to that what we call in the social sector, the
- 11:53Speaker 3: last mile, can help to get some therapy skills and
- 11:58Speaker 3: resources to people, and that's great, But when they're in
- 12:02Speaker 3: that loneliness space, or in that life threatening thinking about
- 12:08Speaker 3: their lives and self harm space, there comes a point
- 12:11Speaker 3: where they need another human. And my hope we use
- 12:15Speaker 3: AI never to replace a human, but to make our
- 12:19Speaker 3: systems more efficient so that we can make sure that
- 12:22Speaker 3: we're connecting humans together. And my hope is that more
- 12:27Speaker 3: and more of those platforms will do the same.
- 12:30Speaker 1: You know, Dana, when you brought up about the volunteers
- 12:34Speaker 1: who are putting themselves on the line to be that
- 12:39Speaker 1: listening ear for individuals, right, I hate to say it,
- 12:43Speaker 1: but I see so much division on social media over everything,
- 12:49Speaker 1: over everything, and there's such richness in hearing someone acknowledge
- 12:57Speaker 1: how you're feeling instead of Sometimes with AI, it's going
- 13:01Speaker 1: to acknowledge that grandiosity of who you are, and sometimes
- 13:07Speaker 1: that isn't good because you need someone who's going to
- 13:11Speaker 1: give you that tough love to say, Hey, your response
- 13:15Speaker 1: to your boss today was a little off putting, you know,
- 13:18Speaker 1: but at the same time, I understand that you have
- 13:22Speaker 1: a lot of things going on. I often talk about DNA.
- 13:26Speaker 1: When I took my first career in news, I had
- 13:30Speaker 1: I took a big leap. I moved a thousand miles
- 13:32Speaker 1: away from home, away from my nucleus family. I was
- 13:36Speaker 1: in a brand new state, brand new city, and to
- 13:40Speaker 1: everyone around me, that looked like the golden ticket right
- 13:43Speaker 1: from Willie Waka. But for me, it was a nightmare.
- 13:48Speaker 1: It My body in my brain struggled so hard with
- 13:54Speaker 1: navigating this new role that I'm in. I was working
- 13:58Speaker 1: over nights, and I'm used to being up early at
- 14:01Speaker 1: between three to four am, but now I'm sleeping or
- 14:06Speaker 1: I'm awake during that time. So when I think about that,
- 14:10Speaker 1: and when I was starting to really struggle mentally, even
- 14:13Speaker 1: the people around me could not see it. It was
- 14:17Speaker 1: just suck it up, buttercup, yep. But at the same time,
- 14:21Speaker 1: this is where I would have wished I would have
- 14:23Speaker 1: had something like crisis text line during that time, because
- 14:27Speaker 1: I would have utilized it like nobody's business, because I
- 14:31Speaker 1: needed that connection. So even though I was amongst a
- 14:35Speaker 1: bunch of people, the isolation and the loneliness existed at
- 14:41Speaker 1: the same time.
- 14:42Speaker 3: Oh Poortia, you are hitting on like this, even though
- 14:45Speaker 3: you were amongst other people, you would not believe some
- 14:51Speaker 3: of the texts we get. We get text messages, and
- 14:54Speaker 3: this is the beauty of text. Like first of all
- 14:56Speaker 3: like reduced by us, no face, no accent.
- 15:00Speaker 2: But you have people at thanksgiving tables who.
- 15:03Speaker 3: Are in the middle of hard like political conversations or
- 15:07Speaker 3: like feeling really isolated and unseen by their own families.
- 15:12Speaker 3: We have that are texting us literally a lot right
- 15:15Speaker 3: there at the Thanksgiving table to get the support. People
- 15:17Speaker 3: in boardrooms, nurses, police officers on duty being triggered with PTSD,
- 15:23Speaker 3: students during lunchtime right like being bullied, feeling alone, feeling scared,
- 15:30Speaker 3: and people at night as well. But those that I'm
- 15:33Speaker 3: always blown away by how much people can be physically
- 15:37Speaker 3: around others and feel so isolated and lonely. And when
- 15:43Speaker 3: we look at not only can people text seven for
- 15:46Speaker 3: one seven for one and people are there like instantly,
- 15:49Speaker 3: but also our volunteer program is a it's like a
- 15:54Speaker 3: marketplace of loneliness solutions, right because like the texture can
- 16:00Speaker 3: somebody in need of support can reach out and does immediately,
- 16:04Speaker 3: but also the volunteer Okay, you're at night, right, you're
- 16:09Speaker 3: feeling lonely, you get to tap in and be in
- 16:11Speaker 3: this community.
- 16:12Speaker 2: Of other volunteers and supervisors.
- 16:14Speaker 3: You're never ever alone from moment one like you're together
- 16:17Speaker 3: so it's your sense of community and you feel that
- 16:21Speaker 3: purpose and connection while being in touch with this person
- 16:27Speaker 3: and helping them through their darkest moments. But my favorite
- 16:31Speaker 3: part of the model is that volunteers carry the skills
- 16:34Speaker 3: with them. So we use like technology and when I
- 16:38Speaker 3: mean technology, right, we have a learning management system, but
- 16:41Speaker 3: we also have generative AI, which is like it thinks
- 16:45Speaker 3: and trains on its own to help coach through training, right,
- 16:48Speaker 3: so that volunteers.
- 16:49Speaker 2: Get to practice, because it can be nervous to say.
- 16:52Speaker 3: Like, you go through training and then you're going to
- 16:54Speaker 3: get on and you're going to help somebody in their
- 16:56Speaker 3: darkest moments, so you want to practice. So we have
- 16:59Speaker 3: that that safe place for them to practice. But in
- 17:03Speaker 3: that they learn the skills about like when you're in
- 17:08Speaker 3: They learn deregulation skills like how do I breath work right?
- 17:15Speaker 3: Or ways of getting present. They learn curiosity, how to
- 17:19Speaker 3: build rapport, how to ask questions without judgment.
- 17:23Speaker 2: They learn how you support somebody without giving.
- 17:25Speaker 3: Advice, right, like by listening and helping them discover their
- 17:29Speaker 3: own inner strength and I know I'm but the best
- 17:34Speaker 3: part of this worsia is that they take those skills.
- 17:38Speaker 3: We know that because we have the research to show
- 17:41Speaker 3: they take those skills into their lives, so they support
- 17:45Speaker 3: over ninety five percent of our volunteers. And last year
- 17:49Speaker 3: we had fifteen thousand active volunteers taking conversations right because
- 17:54Speaker 3: those million and a half conversations needed fifteen thousand volunteers
- 17:57Speaker 3: to come in and take active conversations, and ninety five
- 18:01Speaker 3: percent of them say they use those skills in their
- 18:04Speaker 3: regular lives off the platform to support and de escalate
- 18:08Speaker 3: their families, coworkers, strangers in grocery stores. And back to
- 18:13Speaker 3: that example with Kevin on bridges like those are like
- 18:16Speaker 3: we get those real stories.
- 18:19Speaker 2: That is what excites me the most.
- 18:23Speaker 1: And Dina, I love that your volunteers not only take
- 18:28Speaker 1: what they've learned on the quote unquote job, but they're
- 18:32Speaker 1: utilizing it in there every day to make the world better.
- 18:37Speaker 1: That not only supports I mean, it shows the work
- 18:41Speaker 1: that you're doing at Crisis text Line, but it also
- 18:44Speaker 1: supports the notion of we're not alone. Literally we're not alone,
- 18:49Speaker 1: because I think sometimes different entities they say one thing,
- 18:55Speaker 1: but it's not replicated on the outside to show the
- 18:59Speaker 1: proof of concept. And I think the fact that your
- 19:02Speaker 1: volunteers are not only given of their time however many
- 19:05Speaker 1: hours a day, but they're also utilizing it in their
- 19:09Speaker 1: own families and their own environments because they can see
- 19:13Speaker 1: that there's a need.
- 19:15Speaker 3: Yes, And and by the way, also over ninety percent
- 19:18Speaker 3: of our volunteers say that their own mental health improves. Right, Like,
- 19:22Speaker 3: that's like you were talking about if you were so
- 19:25Speaker 3: imagine those early days where you moved out, you're lonely,
- 19:28Speaker 3: you don't necessarily have community. But imagine if you had
- 19:32Speaker 3: this opportunity to volunteer from the comfort of your couch,
- 19:35Speaker 3: in your pajamas, in your house, right.
- 19:38Speaker 2: And you were able to then learn.
- 19:41Speaker 3: Some of these self coping skills but also get that
- 19:44Speaker 3: sense of connection and that sense of purpose. It could
- 19:47Speaker 3: have made that a little bit easier, and you also
- 19:49Speaker 3: would have had some skills to support others. So over
- 19:53Speaker 3: ninety five percent say their own mental health improofs. Then
- 19:56Speaker 3: we have a majority say that their work.
- 19:59Speaker 2: Really ships improve.
- 20:01Speaker 3: We're right just that because that sense, that sense of community.
- 20:06Speaker 3: And I I always wonder you know you you asked
- 20:10Speaker 3: where we're where we still need resources to address loneliness
- 20:14Speaker 3: and mental health earlier in the conversation, and fundamentally you know,
- 20:20Speaker 3: I don't. I don't think we're going to magically get
- 20:21Speaker 3: the billions of dollars that are going to be required
- 20:24Speaker 3: to really get this deep into these skills and this
- 20:27Speaker 3: workforce deep into community. But what would it look like
- 20:31Speaker 3: if a member of every community or church or family,
- 20:36Speaker 3: especially in communities with high acuity, high risk. Right, so
- 20:41Speaker 3: you have communities of color, veterans, men right at, communities youth.
- 20:47Speaker 3: What if somebody in each of those communities was a
- 20:51Speaker 3: volunteer and had these skills, right, More people are going
- 20:55Speaker 3: to see notice that somebody is crying, More people are
- 20:58Speaker 3: going to be asking questions, are going to connecting just
- 21:01Speaker 3: for the sake of connecting. We're gonna know what to
- 21:04Speaker 3: do when somebody is struggling. And that would make all
- 21:09Speaker 3: of our communities more stronger, more resilient, more connected.
- 21:14Speaker 1: One hundred percent. And you know we it's funny. Dina
- 21:18Speaker 1: I host a live podcast called the Metanoia Effect, and
- 21:21Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about this, the bystander effect
- 21:25Speaker 1: that people seeing what's around them, but often people become frozen.
- 21:31Speaker 1: Not me. I'm the one that's like, hey, there's been
- 21:35Speaker 1: times in my neighborhood. One time there was a gentleman
- 21:37Speaker 1: who I could tell clearly was having a mental health crisis. Yes,
- 21:41Speaker 1: And because he was a male of color, I'm like,
- 21:45Speaker 1: please don't send the police because he might respond differently.
- 21:51Speaker 1: I said, have your sirens off when you come, because
- 21:56Speaker 1: that might also trigger him, and I waited until they
- 22:00Speaker 1: showed up. The guy ended up. I think they ended
- 22:03Speaker 1: up getting him to come into the ambulance, but it
- 22:05Speaker 1: was a struggle because I could see clearly that he
- 22:10Speaker 1: had probably been traumatized at some point in his life.
- 22:13Speaker 1: And that's why I told them don't send the police,
- 22:15Speaker 1: because that could have really been ugly.
- 22:18Speaker 2: Dina and Portia, I just want to thank you for that. Yeah, Like, no,
- 22:22Speaker 2: that's a that's a really, that's a really.
- 22:24Speaker 3: That's how we're in the community, yes, together, And that's
- 22:28Speaker 3: one of the roles that, by the way, we often
- 22:29Speaker 3: play because when nine to one one gets a call
- 22:33Speaker 3: from us, which is only one percent of our conversations,
- 22:35Speaker 3: by the way, Wow, we're really good at desk meeting
- 22:38Speaker 3: people in the moment and de escalating. But in that
- 22:41Speaker 3: one percent, when if emergency services like somebody's life is
- 22:45Speaker 3: actually on the line, then we or a wellness check
- 22:49Speaker 3: like that is needed. You don't want somebody making a
- 22:52Speaker 3: call police showing up. You want somebody like us calling
- 22:55Speaker 3: or like you did, to say, hey, this somebody is
- 22:59Speaker 3: in distress. Yes, this is a mental health issue, so
- 23:02Speaker 3: please send your ambulance or your best trained mental health professionals.
- 23:07Speaker 3: And most communities have units and places and people that
- 23:11Speaker 3: are more trained to go meet in that moment, because
- 23:15Speaker 3: the danger is when that context is not given.
- 23:19Speaker 1: Yes. Yes, and we've seen that go sideways in so
- 23:23Speaker 1: many different high profile cases. We're not going to go
- 23:25Speaker 1: into that today, Diana. For our audience who's tuning in,
- 23:28Speaker 1: if they want to obviously connect with you, learn more
- 23:31Speaker 1: about Crisis text Line, if they want to maybe even
- 23:34Speaker 1: become a volunteer, how can they do that today?
- 23:37Speaker 3: Okay, Crisis Textline dot org. Please just check it out
- 23:41Speaker 3: and right away it pops up. If you're in crisis,
- 23:45Speaker 3: click here so that you can text or chat or
- 23:47Speaker 3: WhatsApp if you want to volunteer, or if you want
- 23:50Speaker 3: to donate, Like all of those are the quick options.
- 23:54Speaker 3: Volunteering is very easy. You it's fifteen hours of volunteer
- 24:00Speaker 3: training remotely on your computer, and again you get to
- 24:03Speaker 3: do it from the comfort of your.
- 24:05Speaker 2: Couch of your house.
- 24:06Speaker 3: You have to be over eighteen, but please come and
- 24:09Speaker 3: check that out. We are always looking for in training
- 24:11Speaker 3: new volunteers. There was a little section that says, please
- 24:15Speaker 3: commit to two hundred hours. Please don't let that scare
- 24:17Speaker 3: you away. That's just to let you know how much
- 24:19Speaker 3: we invest in you. But just sign up and get
- 24:21Speaker 3: the training. I just want every human, every human to
- 24:24Speaker 3: have this training. And the other thing I'm gonna ask is,
- 24:28Speaker 3: get out your phone and in your contacts right crisis
- 24:32Speaker 3: text line and the number seven four one, seven four one,
- 24:36Speaker 3: because it is in the moments of despair or that
- 24:42Speaker 3: we need that close at hand. You may not remember
- 24:44Speaker 3: the number, so it's good to have it in contacts
- 24:46Speaker 3: and to share with your loved ones because it is
- 24:51Speaker 3: it is in the moments of the darkest moments when
- 24:55Speaker 3: you just need to outreach and talk to somebody and
- 24:58Speaker 3: get through that moment. We are there twenty four to seven, confidential,
- 25:02Speaker 3: non judgmental, anytime.
- 25:05Speaker 2: So that's seven four one, seven.
- 25:07Speaker 1: Four one excellent. So for our audience, as Diana mentioned,
- 25:11Speaker 1: put the crisis text line phone number in your phone
- 25:14Speaker 1: seven four one, seven four one. Will also put it
- 25:17Speaker 1: in the show notes if you forget, you can also
- 25:20Speaker 1: utilize AI to find crisis text line. I'm sure it
- 25:23Speaker 1: will tell you different things that probably data doesn't even
- 25:26Speaker 1: know about crisis text line even though she's there. Sure, Dina,
- 25:30Speaker 1: this has been a beautiful conversation. I thank you so
- 25:33Speaker 1: much for coming on and sharing with our audience that
- 25:36Speaker 1: the beauty of human connection that still exists. Yes, technology
- 25:40Speaker 1: is there to maybe help to simplify processes and make
- 25:44Speaker 1: things a little smoother as far as transitions goes, but
- 25:48Speaker 1: there's still that need for that one to one human connection,
- 25:52Speaker 1: especially when you're going through something tragic, when you don't
- 25:56Speaker 1: know what to do, when you're filling that loneliness, when
- 25:59Speaker 1: you're in that loneliness bottle on you don't know where
- 26:01Speaker 1: to go, who to connect with? Dan For our audience
- 26:05Speaker 1: who's tuning in, if there's that one person today who's
- 26:08Speaker 1: saying to themselves that my issue isn't as big to
- 26:14Speaker 1: need support today, how can you respond to them today?
- 26:19Speaker 3: We always say whatever is a crisis to you is
- 26:21Speaker 3: a crisis to us.
- 26:22Speaker 2: Okay, there's no.
- 26:23Speaker 3: Crisis too big or too small, Because if you're feeling distress,
- 26:27Speaker 3: that's reaching out and getting support in that moment of
- 26:31Speaker 3: distress is actually preventing like getting too severe needs. So
- 26:38Speaker 3: please validate people, listen, listen to them. If you don't
- 26:44Speaker 3: know what to do, tell them to text seven for one,
- 26:46Speaker 3: seven for one. And again, while we talked about suicide
- 26:49Speaker 3: and loneliness, it's like anything anything in between. We get
- 26:54Speaker 3: kids texting us because they got into a fight with
- 26:56Speaker 3: their parents, or they're getting a bad test grade and
- 26:59Speaker 3: they don't they don't know how to process it, so
- 27:02Speaker 3: we would rather it is more important to reach out.
- 27:06Speaker 3: And one more thing, Portia, you do such a beautiful
- 27:10Speaker 3: job of holding space for people that are going through
- 27:13Speaker 3: grief and trauma. And one of my favorite things about
- 27:18Speaker 3: our volunteer program is that it is often people.
- 27:22Speaker 2: Who have had loss, who have had trauma, who have
- 27:26Speaker 2: struggled through loneliness or suicide or again there's nothing too small,
- 27:31Speaker 2: but they've struggled and they got help from crisis Techline
- 27:35Speaker 2: or somebody they know did, and that is what then
- 27:38Speaker 2: drives them to be a volunteer so they can help
- 27:41Speaker 2: o theirs but also as part of their own healing.
- 27:44Speaker 1: Absolutely, and then I appreciate that that's what I created
- 27:46Speaker 1: this platform for because so many people they have a
- 27:50Speaker 1: story inside of them. And I always say that the
- 27:54Speaker 1: worst part of you is the best part of you.
- 27:56Speaker 1: Your story is not for you, It is for somebody
- 28:00Speaker 1: else to give them permission to open up, to share
- 28:03Speaker 1: their story with the world. Well, everybody, that was Dina Trahillo,
- 28:09Speaker 1: the CEO of Crisis text line that you heard from
- 28:11Speaker 1: today on grew Portie. And that concludes our conversation until
- 28:15Speaker 1: next time, everybody, Peace and hair Greece. Everyone,