20 years of the national suicide crisis hotline: Minnesota 988 meets you 'wherever you're at'

NINA MOINI: Today is National 988 Day. It's a day meant to boost national awareness of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The Minnesota Department of Health has four call centers throughout the state to support mental health of anyone who calls. The biggest of those centers is in the Twin Cities, operated by United Way.

And Julie Ogunleye is the director of that call center. She joins me now to talk about the program and its future. Thanks for joining us today, Julie.

JULIE OGUNLEYE: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

NINA MOINI: 988, gosh, has helped thousands of people. People listening right now may not have experienced a call to the hotline. Would you tell us what it is like? Maybe it's not the same for everyone, but what is it like to call or what happens?

JULIE OGUNLEYE: Yes, well, certainly anyone can call 988 from anywhere, any cell phone, to reach us here, as well as text, if that's an option people are more comfortable with too. So we do have those options available. But if you call, you will be asked if you are a veteran, you could press option 1, and if you would like to speak to somebody in Spanish, you can press option 2.

Then if you don't press any options, you'll be directed to a local Minnesota call center, like ours, and you're really just going to have a conversation. We're here to listen. We're going to ask you, what's going on, how are you feeling today? Really try to understand what brought you to call us and just have that listening, empathetic conversation to make sure you have a place to be heard and understood.

And so, most people who call us aren't necessarily experiencing immediate crisis where it's an active attempt of suicide, for example. It's somebody who's experiencing some mental health crisis of some kind or having thoughts of suicide, and they're worried. And so, they're really looking to talk to somebody.

We can be there to listen and to help understand what is it going to take to help keep you safe. And how can we help you with maybe a safety plan, or feeling like you have some tools and resources to have some conversations in your life, or otherwise be able to come up with a plan. That might mean connecting with longer term resources in your community that can help you to get a plan in place to stay safe.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, thank you for that. It's important to have an idea of how it all works. And the fact that it's been 20 years since the National Suicide Crisis Line was created, 988, in 2022. And what do you think has happened the last 20 years or so?

It sounds like people are learning more and more in recent years about this resource. Do you think it's maybe less stigma around calling? It just seems like there have been more and more people, especially in recent years.

JULIE OGUNLEYE: Well, and our hope is, like you mentioned, that switch from it used to be an 800 number, known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for many years, and then in 2020 changed to 988. And that's a much easier to remember number. That 800 number, it was fairly easy, but not, obviously, off the tip of your tongue.

And so having a number like that can be as familiar or as easy to remember as 911 or 411, all those other numbers we know, that is really, I think, something that makes it easier for people to reach out in that crisis, especially when you are having a lot of thoughts, a lot of anxiety going through your mind all at once. To have something that's easy to remember really does make it easier.

And I think there's been a broader shift in our culture understanding around mental health and how important it is to be OK to talk about things even when they're not good. And certainly, there's challenges in our environment today that are challenging all of us. And so we've seen people reaching out more and more. And having a place like 988 to call that is free, that is confidential, to be able to have a resource like that really is something I hope everybody takes advantage of if and when they need it.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, and in July, you mentioned some of the challenges out there. The Trump administration removed the 988 hotline service that was tailored to LGBTQ+ youth. What kind of support was lost for people with that? And what kind of support is needed right now, do you think?

JULIE OGUNLEYE: Yeah, and so as I mentioned, there were different options available. So it used to be when you called 988, you could press option 3 to talk to the Trevor Project, which was a specialized lifeline for LGBTQAI+ youth. And that was really sad to lose that specialized option.

Certainly the Trevor Project is still available. You can call them directly or other resources like that. But I do just want to reiterate, 988 has always strove to be an inclusive place where anybody can call. And so certainly locally we renewed trainings and refreshed our staff on some of the needs particular to the LGBTQAI+ community.

And so, certainly invite people still to continue to call and reach out when they need help, because that is something that we're trained for and definitely want to support people with. But I think just in particular, it's always sad to see when support that we know is being used, it was about 400 calls a month that from Minnesota that were going to that specialized line prior to the ending of it.

And so that's a lot of people that were reaching out and choosing that option. So we certainly strive to have that support locally. Certainly, please do continue to reach out, but know that it is a loss for our community.

NINA MOINI: That's so important to mention, though, that it doesn't mean you can't call anymore. It just means that it won't go to the specialized line. But for everybody to continue to call. 400 people a month, that's a lot of people. In the past few weeks, we've had a really, really difficult things happening as you know in the state of Minnesota.

We've been talking a lot here and all over about mental health resources, really, in the wake of the Annunciation shooting, of course, the mass shooting there. And there's been a lot of just gun violence in the news, this year and in general. How do events like this impact the calls that you get?

JULIE OGUNLEYE: Yeah, I mean, we're all impacted by things like that that happen in our world. I mean, globally, nationally, and especially locally recently, it is hard to not be affected by these events. And so certainly we see that reflected in the calls we get. It isn't a one to one equivalent that we see a huge spike in calls necessarily.

But we certainly hear these themes and concerns from our callers as well. And so knowing that when you're already struggling or feeling depressed or having challenges, these type of events and the state of our world definitely add to that and have an effect on people's mental well-being. And so it's definitely something that we talk about as a staff and want to continue to support people through. And certainly it's really being there for each other, kind of human to human and having these conversations and being that place to have conversations, especially when we might not have other outlets.

NINA MOINI: And you mentioned human to human. And I don't know if you were listening in our last segment, we were talking about AI. And we're going to be talking a lot about that as it relates to schools. But people have also talked a lot about it in the mental health space.

I want us to take a listen, if you don't mind, here to the Minnesota Department of Health, which released a campaign video like a PSA for 988 just last week. Let's take a listen to part of that.

SUBJECT 1: I am 988.

SUBJECT 2: I am 988. For a safe space to talk with someone trained to listen.

SUBJECT 1: Like me.

SUBJECT 3: Just like me.

SUBJECT 4: Like me.

SUBJECT 2: Not AI, a real person.

ALL: I am 988.

NINA MOINI: So a couple questions out of that, Julie. What do you think about just the role of AI in spaces of trying to help real people with real problems?

JULIE OGUNLEYE: I mean, there's certainly benefits to AI. I'm not an AI hater or naysayer. Yeah, yeah.

NINA MOINI: No, I get it. Yeah.

JULIE OGUNLEYE: But especially in the work that we do, I mean, it's really important to us that we're a person on the other end of that line, because there is only so much that technology can do to have empathy and be a human to human connection.

And just to know that you're talking to a real person who cares and is there to listen, things can change quickly or have different options that we want to present. And it's not always going to be a one-size-fits-all or a situation that can be predicted. And so having somebody there to really relate in real time and be another person is just, I think, in this type of work in particular, critical.

NINA MOINI: Sure. And then you're going to need volunteers and people to make sure that you're able to keep up with any type of demand. So just before I let you go, how can people get involved with 988 if they want to help?

JULIE OGUNLEYE: Yeah, that's a great question. At our center, we have professionally trained staff in the sense that they are all paid staff members. So we don't have those type of opportunities.

But we do certainly encourage everyone to tell a friend about 988, to get trained in potentially mental health, first aid, or other types of programs that you can use to educate yourself and be an advocate for mental health and suicide prevention. Certainly, there's a lot we need to do in our community to just make 988 more known in our community and have people feel comfortable reaching out and having these conversations too in their personal lives.

NINA MOINI: Certainly. Julie, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it.

JULIE OGUNLEYE: All right. Thank you so much.

NINA MOINI: That was Julie Ogunleye, the director of the 211 and 988 services through the United Way of the Greater Twin Cities.