According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, there were 42,733 reported suicides in 2014, making suicide “the 10th leading cause of death for Americans.” Ting Ting Lee, UC Davis alumni and Crisis Line Program Director for Suicide Prevention of Yolo Country, has helped provide 24/7 support for anyone who needs it in the last ten years of her affiliation with the organization.
HC: Can you tell me about the organization itself?
TL: We are one of the five oldest volunteer-run crisis lines in the nation. We were founded in 1966 following a UC Davis murder-suicide. At that point in time, the clergy was in the area. Mental health professionals came together and said, “We really need this kind of service around for people.” They’d seen the model that LA had done, which is a 24-hour crisis line, so they decided to do the same thing here.
HC: What led you into this career?
TL: I started as a volunteer. I was a junior [at UC Davis] taking Abnormal Psych with Dr. Eva Schepelerm, and she [mentioned] it during a class. I asked her about it and she said it was “a great opportunity. If you’re looking to work with clients in the future, I would definitely recommend getting some experience.” I went and interviewed, and there was a training program in Feburary 2006. I kept volunteering with them until the next year when I started working for them in Fall 2007. Progressively throughout the year, I learned how a crisis line works. I left for a while to get my master’s in Counseling Psychology at Sac State. Right now, I am the marriage, family therapist intern.
HC: How do you go about choosing a volunteer?
TL: Not everyone is cut out for crisis work. That’s just something to know if people are considering going into this. It’s good to know yourself. Empathy is not something that’s easy to teach. Some people might argue that you can’t teach it. We look for volunteers that naturally have a strong degree of empathy, that have a desire to help others, a desire to listen, a desire to learn.
We also look for volunteers that naturally seem to be pretty self-aware. We ask about the kind of self-care people do, and if they feel emotionally ready. Volunteers come from all walks of life, they come with all kinds of life experience and that’s awesome. Some people come with fairly traumatic life experience and that’s not something that disqualifies you, we just always want to be really safe with our volunteers. As much as the safety of our callers is important to us, the volunteers are the backbone of the organization. We don’t want to put people in a dangerous situation where they feel triggered or unsafe.
In addition, it’s a pretty big commitment, so we choose volunteers who are serious about this opportunity. In order to be a volunteer, one must complete 36 hours of training, and agree to one year of volunteer work.
HC: Being in the field for so long, have you noticed any trends or changes in the callers and/or the problems they face?
TL: Personally, I have noticed that back in 2008 when there was that big housing market crash, the proceeding bailout resulted in a lot of cut programs. If you remember, back in the day, a lot of the mental health programs were not a priority. I can remember the rehab/detox program had to be closed down. We saw more people with financial issues, more people feeling really desperate because of that financial squeeze. Now, suicide and suicide prevention has been in the news more with public figures like Robin Williams. There’s been a lot more attention on it with social media, websites kind of putting more attention on this topic, which is awesome because that [means] more people reaching out.
In addition, now we’re seeing more third-party callers, which is when someone calls when they’re worried about somebody. Which is great, because it means people are noticing, it means people are reaching out and not just sitting there thinking, “I’m sure they’ll be fine,” or “I’m sure they’re just joking.” They’re not just letting it go, they’re taking it seriously. In reality, bystanders are super important. I don’t know if personally, you’ve ever felt depressed or struggled with anxiety, but a lot of people who deal with that kind of stuff—it’s very much isolating. It’s very much, “Oh, I should take care of myself,” “I shouldn’t tell anybody,” or “I just feel really bad about myself so I should just deal with it.” Sometimes when you’re in that space you don’t feel like you should reach out and call a crisis line, you just feel crappy. Bystander awareness can be crucial when it comes to preventing suicide.
HC: What’s the demographic of the people who call in? Are there more boys or girls? Young people or old people?
TL: It depends, actually. It can fluctuate. Back in the day, I used to think that more females might call, because from research more females tend to reach out for help, but that’s not so much the case in recent times. It’s a pretty even mix between males and females, which is really good to see. It means people are reaching out for help across the board.
Age-wise, it’s not like we don’t get any young people, but I do know that other crisis centers have started tapping into services like “Crisis Text,” and “Crisischat,” where you can chat on a computer or text on your phone. With [resources like] that, that is definitely [reaching out to] a younger demographic.
HC: How do you think that calling a hotline affects/helps the caller in terms of mental health and stability?
It depends on the caller and their situation. If someone’s calling and they’re feeling lonely, it can be huge [to have someone to talk to]. Maybe they don’t feel lonely, maybe they have people around them, but they aren’t supportive, and are toxic… it can be really meaningful and really helpful to have somebody on your side who can talk to you in a way that is not going to make you feel worse.
Maybe somebody’s an…eminent danger to themselves, they can’t keep from hurting themselves. Having someone on the other line can be something powerful, where the volunteer can talk to them about, you know, “Hey, can you put that down. Let’s try to work together to make it so you don’t hurt yourself tonight, let’s try to figure this out,” whether that means they have to go somewhere, or engage with somebody in their life and have them taken to the emergency room, whatever that might be. It’s just somebody that’s there for you, right at this moment, whether that be in the middle of the night or during the day or evening. It’s someone that’s there for you that cares about what’s going on with you.
A lot of times when people are feeling so deep and dark in their depression, they don’t see any other way out, but to take their own life. It’s hard to see a way out, and having a person on the other line who can say, “Hey, let’s work together. I’m here for you, let’s talk,” offers a different perspective that can help, hopefully.
HC: Do you and the other volunteers feel personally responsible for what happens to your callers?
TL: I’m sure. Our volunteers are all kind and empathic people. What you might be asking, which is what a lot of volunteers ask is: What happens if I talk to somebody and they end up taking their own life anyway? There’s always that level of uncertainty. A lot of self-care and taking care of yourself as a volunteer is understanding: I did what I could to help this person. And most of the time, that’s enough. We always encourage the callers, “If you’re ever feel like you’re in a crisis again, if you’re feeling like this again, please call us first, before you do anything,” and even in situations that have deescalated, we do follow up calls as well.
HC: Overall, what do you think the importance of a suicide hotline is?
Back in the day this was, in terms of crisis lines in general, one of the few places you could get help 24/7. Now that we have the Internet, social media, all kinds of sites, and apps, and all sorts of creative programs that are trying to help people feel more supported, it’s a much more complex and multilayered world of helping people, and helping people reach out to care for themselves. We are one of many options (which is awesome), for people to kind of receive support for their mental health crisis.
SPYC is part of the California Suicide Prevention Network and we used to be a network of 10 crisis centers across California, and now we’re on to 14. We’re all working together to develop common practices and common metrics. It’s pretty revolutionary, I don’t know that there’s many other states that are doing this. I do know people are keeping an eye on it and potentially taking from that model of crisis centers really working together, and talking about what kinds of callers are we get, and what’s really helping them. It’s really cool to be on the forefront of that.
Big picture, we’re just another important piece in a large collective of mental health resources that you can reach out to if you’re feeling like you have no other options. We can provide a caller with someone to talk to instantly, who knows all the local resources and can refer you some place if needed, or knows what to do in this moment because you don’t know what to do.
For more general information/information in getting involved, please visit:
http://www.suicidepreventionyolocounty.org/
You don’t have to be a psych major to volunteer, Anyone is elligible if they are willing to go through training. Even if they don’t go into mental health, just putting informed, active listeners out into the world makes our community a better place.