If you’re in crisis, text 741741 if you’re in the US to talk with a counselor now. In this episode we speak with the people behind Crisis Text Line and Crisis Trends, two services that use data to make a difference for those going through a crisis or looking for someone with whom to talk.
Overview
- Texters contact the hotline by texting the shortcode 741741. Volunteers are logged onto “the platform”, which is on CTL’s internal site, to receive these messages and access counselor tools.
- Their data is collected in real time and is updated in close to real time: https://crisistrends.org/
- This is the TED talk where the founder introduced her idea for the organization: https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_lublin_texting_that_saves_lives
- This is the TED talk 3 years later where the founder shared an update on CTL’s success and shared information about how they use data intelligently on their platform: https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_lublin_the_heartbreaking_text_that_inspired_a_crisis_help_line
Key Stats
- Over 1 million messages transmitted per month
- 75% of texters are under 25
- 10% under age 13
- 65% say they have shared something with Crisis Text Line that they haven’t shared with anyone else
- Usually at least one active rescue per day
- Take people based on severity and have the ability to initiate an active rescue (via 911)
- Words like ibuprofen, aspirin, tylenol are more indicative of active rescue need than the words die, overdose, suicide
- 🙁 emoji is 4x more of an indicator
- Roots of CTL go back to 1906 when Save-A-Life League started via newspaper ads
- The Samaritans was the first phone suicide hotline and started in November 1953
- Founded by Nancy Lublin, who is also the CEO of DoSomething.org, in 2011
- Introductions – background, how they got their start, how they got involved in CrisisTextLine
- Staci – volunteer
- Scotty – Data Scientist
- History of Crisis Text Line and high-level structure (where they operate, # of locations, # of employees / volunteers)
- Staci’s experience
- What was training like?
- Where do she take sessions and how often?
- How do she feel after a session?
- Her experience as a counselor and thoughts on the impact, data, etc.
- What ways they collect data
- #s of texters
- UI platform for counselors
- Types of data they collect
- Types of technologies used to collect/manage it – both publicly, behind the scenes, for presentations, etc.
- What ways they use data
- CrisisTrends.org site
- Anonymity, opt-in/opt-out options and how frequent each occur
- Key stats they feel are most important/surprising/alarming, etc.
- How has data made an impact to those in need?
- How has data made an impact to counselors?
- How has data made an impact to the organization?
- How has data made an impact to the crisis advocacy sector as a whole?
- What ways can other people can use their data
- Do they encourage that visitors explore to find their own insights?
- Will data be available by zip code at some point?
- Data Science
- What tools and techniques do they see being most important in the near term?
- What do they see as becoming less important in the near term?
- What is something they could have told their earlier selves that would have made their path to this point easier?
- Organization Info
- How someone can get involved
- What they need most
- What is in store for the future? New technologies, platforms for contact, etc.
- How someone can contact them
Music
Deep Sky Blue by Graphiqs Groove
Sources
- https://youtu.be/KOtFDsC8JC0 – TED talk about origin
- https://www.crisistextline.org/
- https://crisistrends.org/
- http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/r-u
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