Warm Springs Prevention Team and Lines for Life are looking for volunteers to work the lines at their satellite call centers to help youth and young adults experiencing a mental health crisis.
“The outreach for volunteer recruitment looks like working in the schools and working in community settings where youth are engaged, talking about the work that we do and the impact on our work,” program director Emily Moser said.
The organizations are primarily interested in looking for teenagers to work the call lines so they can help their peers.
“The reason why the peer-to-peer lines work is because we have teenagers and young adults that know and understand what it means to be a teenager,” Moser said.
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The Warm Springs Prevention Team, an organization made up of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, reach their youth by keeping them involved with their culture.
Every summer, they hold a tribal youth camp focused on the topic of suicide prevention — a safe place for those who have or are experiencing crisis.
“Before they go to sleep, we get into a talking circle. They’re able to talk about whatever they want,” Rosanna Jackson with the Warm Springs Prevention Team said. “But many of them talk about having thoughts of suicide or attempting suicide, and their family members don’t know, and this might be the first time they’ve talked about it.”
Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., visited the Prevention Team’s building on Thursday as a major advocate for raising awareness for mental health and sharing a story of his own.
This is deeply personal to me,” Wyden said. “If there’s one issue I want to make a big difference on in the future, it’s mental health. My brother was schizophrenic and every night for years in the Wyden household, we would go to bed at night worried my brother was going to hurt himself.”
If you or anyone you know is in crisis, you can reach out to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
