May 7, 2024 • 13 mins
Doug Jackson is Ohio’s 988 System Administrator. Jackson brings a wealth of management, leadership and strategic planning experience to the Department. Most recently, he served as a deputy director with the State Treasurer’s Office, overseeing the STABLE Account, an investment and spending tool for individuals with disabilities. He previously served as a superintendent with the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, as an adjunct professor at Wright State University, in administration of services and supports at the Miami County Board of Developmental Disabilities, and as a program coordinator with Champaign Residential Services, Inc.As Ohio’s 988 Administrator, Jackson will oversee the development, implementation, and administration of policies, programs, and services related to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and its Ohio provider network; ensure compliance with all state and federal regulations, laws, and budgetary requirements; oversee grants, contracts and allocation processes; supervise staff; assist OhioMHAS leadership with legislation and/or administrative rules; develop and maintain relationships that support collaboration with other local, state, and federal agencies and organizations; share information related to crisis and prevention services across interdepartmental and interdisciplinary teams and workgroups; and effectively communicate the philosophies and goals of 988, suicide prevention and the crisis response continuum. He assist's the Department with the integration of behavioral health crisis call center activities and suicide prevention services into a coordinated continuum of care to promote individualized recovery and resilience.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Columbus in Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How do they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know andiHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. Welcome back to
(00:20):
our latest episode of CEOs You ShouldKnow. It's an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast.
This podcast is a very special one. This episode is going to be a
little bit different from what we normallydo in our CEO series podcast, which
is we highlight the specific CEO ofthe company, we talk about the company,
(00:42):
we highlight what they've done and thegreat things they've done here in Central
Ohio. But we're going to goa different avenue today. And I have
to say that I'm really really excitedin a way of how this is helping
people since it was established. AndI want to welcome Doug Jackson. Doug
Jenson, excuse me. Doug Jacksonis the administrator for the State of Ohio
(01:04):
of nine eight eight and nine eighteight is something that Doug is going to
elaborate a little bit more on.But when you think at nine eight eight
the lifeline, it was established toimprove both the accessibility of crisis services and
to meet the nation's growing suicide andmental health related crisis care needs. And
Doug, I want to welcome you. I can't thank you enough for joining
(01:26):
us today. Thanks box Art isgreat to be with you. And this
is a fantastic opportunity to just bringawareness to what Ohio has as a resource
for mental health crisis. Surely,for the most part, people have heard
of nine eight eight, But justto give us an overview, what is
nine eight eight? Yeah, nineeight eight is a three digit number to
(01:46):
call if you are experiencing a mentalhealth crisis or just need some emotional support.
So it's three digits, easy treemember, and it is statewide,
and it's free and it's confidential forany person to call. By the way,
when was nine eight eight as'ablished? She doesn't feel like it was
too long ago. Yeah, itwas less than two years ago when the
entire nation had to adopt a threedigit numbering that even if you leave Ohio,
(02:09):
you're still going to be able touse nine eight eight as the known
mental health number. But it wasestablished after a one eight hundred numbers that
already existed, there was a littlemore focus just on suicide prevention. What
we realized is we really need toaddress the full mental health needs of a
person. So nine eight eight hasbeen around since July of twenty twenty two.
(02:29):
We expected that people would use it. We know that the need is
there, but what we found isthat more and more people, as they
become aware of it, are usingit. In the calendar You're twenty twenty
three, we had over one hundredand sixty thousand Ohioans contacting nine eight eight
in contact it by calling, texting, or chatting at our website nine eight
(02:51):
eight lifeline dot org. Doug Jacksonis the administrator for the State of Ohio's
nine to eight aid program, andhe's this week's guest on CEOs. You
should know normally it's a CEO thatwe're talking to, but Doug is just
as important because he oversee something thatis what I would like to say.
I mean, say you're saving lives. Doug, wouldn't you say nine eight
(03:12):
eight has saved lives? It absolutelyhas. Yeah. We have story after
story by those who are answering thecontacts that are made of people in need
and really just gaining hope and atleast gaining time to process through the crisis
that they're in and getting additional resourcesto support them so that they do choose
to continue to live. So whensomeone calls nine eight eight, what is
(03:36):
something that they can expect. Yeah, we have over four hundred staff in
the state of Ohio that's part timein full time that are supporting the nine
eight eight network. So we havenineteen different call centers throughout the state,
statewide coverage that really understands Ohioans,the Ohio culture, and the need of
Ohioans. And when they call orcontact nine eight eight, they're going to
(03:57):
get a trained person who's trains tothe sacifically to answer this line. Is
they answer the line, they're goingto first just make sure that the person
is safe. They're going to talkto them about their current status, and
then they're also just going to listen. A listening ear is so helpful,
And as they listen, they're goingto be talking with the person about any
other supports that they might need andthen directing those needs to the local resources.
(04:23):
So local mental health providers and supportsthat are in their community from there
is it. You know, theperson on the other end at nine eight
eight, do they figure out,Okay, this person needs X, Y
and Z, and how fast andthrough is it getting that help? You
know, it's fast to get incontact with somebody who is answering that call
(04:44):
right now. Our response time orspeed to answers about twenty five seconds in
the state of Ohio. So whenyou first call nine eight eight, you
actually have free options that you couldchoose if you need some specific support.
Option one is for veterans to call, so you just dial nine eight eight
and then your first option, optionone, you get veteran services. Option
(05:05):
two is for Spanish speaking individuals,and option three is for individual who might
need specific supports for LGBTQ plus Andso those three options will kind of guide
somebody to the call center that isbest for them. But if they just
need general supports, nine eight eighton its own is then going to move
forward to a contact specialist to answerthat phone. So it is it's very
(05:29):
fast, but people that are contactingnine eight eight. We don't define what
a crisis is, Okay, Acrisis is different for every person, and
so we want people to call ifthey believe that they're in crisis. So
all types of life situations are beinghandled by those contact specialists. What about
cast like you're calling this nine eighteight line. You know someone's in crisis,
(05:53):
I need help. Could some ofthem be afraid to call because they
think, Okay, maybe this isgoing to cost me something. How does
that work? Yeah, that's agreat question because we want to eliminate barriers
to calling, and so to knowthat it is indeed free, is very
important to call to talk to somebodyto work through that crisis on the phone.
There is no cost of that.If the person needs additional supports,
(06:15):
what are contact specialists are trained todo is work with them find supports that
work for the person who's calling.That includes what type of payment method they
might have if they were to getprofessional help, like going to a therapist.
So we want to know, youknow, the person's resources so that
we can help them get it ifit's insurance or private pay or or working
(06:39):
with the agency itself that they mightneed resources from to get that service.
What kind of calls are coming injust people that are down in the dumps?
Is it depression? Is it?I know you talked about veterans that
was one of those options. Butwhat are people going through right now that
maybe some of us don't realize,you know. I like to say that
people are only one day away froma crisis or one moment away from a
(07:00):
crisis, because we never know whatit is that is going to put that
person's life and a situation where theybelieve that they're out of control. And
so sometimes that could be just normallife circumstances that happen. It could be
a relationship issues, it could bework related issues. Losing a job is
a big deal when your financial incomecould be in jeopardy and you might be
(07:23):
losing hope because of that. Medicalconcerns, so we've we've had people call
that just need to process through anew diagnosis and be supported and how they're
going to respond to that personally.Yeah, So it is it is truly
many, many life circumstances that arecalling nine eight eight. Doug Jackson is
the nine eight eight Administrator for theState of Ohio. He is this week's
(07:46):
guest on CEOs. You should know, Doug, what is the difference though,
between nine eight eight and nine toone one. Yeah, it's a
great, a great question. Boththree digit numbers and they're both called for
health, but really nine one oneis about getting an emergency response from police,
ambulance, or fire and nine eighteight is about talking with somebody.
(08:09):
So it is we like to defineit as nine to one one for emergency
response and nine eight eight for mentalhealth crisis. Doug, what are the
goals though with the state wide awarenesscampaign? Yeah, we are launching a
state wide awareness campaign in the monthof May. That is a much broader
scale than what we've had to date. So we wanted to make sure that
nine eight eight was working in thestate of Ohio, and indeed we've proved
(08:33):
that to be true. The contactsthat are being made by Ohioans, over
ninety nine percent of those are beinganswered in state by Ohio call centers.
We have less than one percent rollingover to a national backup center. All
calls are getting answered, but lessthan one percenter out of state. We
know that we've got the workforce thereto do the job, and that's just
(08:54):
very important in today's culture to makesure that we've got workers. And we
spent time building out this system andnow we want to make sure that all
people are aware. So when wedid our marketing research, we found that
not all people were aware of nineeight eight. In fact, only about
thirty six percent of people are awarethat nine eight eight exists for a mental
health resource in Ohio. Wow.Yeah, it seems like everybody should know,
(09:20):
because Hey, I work with thisevery day, I know, so
I just assume everybody else does.But this interview is very important because those
who are listening, you know,we might expect that they know, and
they might not, and to havea mental health crisis and not know that
this exists would be a significant lossfor Ohioland so we want to make sure
all Ohiolands are aware of nine eighteight, and that's our goal as we
(09:43):
enter into this broad scale marketing campaign. Well, Doug, with that,
you know, we have this platform. We're certainly pushing this out and letting
people know about nine eight eight.But how can others help? What can
we do to help help nine eighteight help others around us, our neighbors
or friends, family members. Yeah. I think there's two things that we
(10:03):
can all do, and one isto help destigmatize mental health. Help people
understand that it's okay to not beokay, that all people go through challenges
and struggles and personal struggles and sothat conversation can become normal. It can
become normal in family, that canbecome normal in the workplace. It can
(10:24):
become normal to ask how are youdoing, and when the response is I'm
fine, really digging in a littlebit deeper and seeing if the person is
indeed fine or if they're just maskingit. And that's what our marketing campaign
theme is is kind of asking thequestion at a deeper level and making sure
that people are okay. And thenthe other resource that we I think we
(10:46):
can all do a great job inhelping with is just making sure that the
number itself is made known, whetherthat's in the workplace as we talk,
you know, to other CEOs andother companies, having this as a resources
for your employees, having it inbreak rooms or a sticker on the mirror
in the restroom. Making sure thatit is known by people that this number
(11:11):
exists. It's education. When nineone one rolled out in the nineteen eighties
in Ohio, we did a darngood job of educating all people from school
age all the way up through adulthood, and nine eight eight we have the
same task ahead of us. Weneed to make sure all people are aware
of nine eight eight. Have webroken down some barriers when it comes to
(11:31):
the stereotypes? Have we come alongways? And do we still have a
long ways to go? Doug Youno, we have come a long ways,
and you really hit it, andthat's that we still have a long
ways to go. If there wasany silver lining to the COVID pandemic,
it was that we really started torecognize that people internalize things, they keep
(11:52):
things to themselves, especially in isolation, and we started to really talk about
opening up and being able to sharethose and trying to destigmatize when you have
a personal struggle. And so,yes, we've definitely come a long ways,
and it's through all of our partnersand stakeholders across the state of Ohio,
the local mental health boards and providersof services that have helped just bring
(12:16):
the light to this and start talkingabout it. But we still have a
long ways to go. And that'swhere you know. These can be dining
room table conversations at home, thesecan be conversations and classrooms, these can
be conversations at the workplace, justfocusing on it's okay to not be okay
and if you're not okay, whatdo you do, Doug, is there
(12:37):
a website where people get more infoby nine eight eight, Yes, there
definitely is. Specific for the stateof Ohio nine eight eight dot Ohio dot
gov is going to lead you toour Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction
Services web page. We have specificinformation about nine eight eight on their nine
eight eight information that you can share. Some of it you can just click
(13:00):
on and share for social media.Others you can download so that you could
put it into a company newsletter.But we want to make sure that you
have the resources so that you canshare not just words of mouth, but
really share the information that's provided aboutnine eight eight. Doug Jackson, wealth
of knowledge and very important information administratorfor nine to eight eight for the State
(13:22):
of Ohio. Doug, thanks somuch for your time and really keep up
the good work. Boxer, thanksfor the opportunity. It's been great working
with you on this CEOs You ShouldKnow is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer,
a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
Columbus in Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How do they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know andiHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. Welcome back to
(00:20):
our latest episode of CEOs You ShouldKnow. It's an iHeartMedia Columbus podcast.
This podcast is a very special one. This episode is going to be a
little bit different from what we normallydo in our CEO series podcast, which
is we highlight the specific CEO ofthe company, we talk about the company,
(00:42):
we highlight what they've done and thegreat things they've done here in Central
Ohio. But we're going to goa different avenue today. And I have
to say that I'm really really excitedin a way of how this is helping
people since it was established. AndI want to welcome Doug Jackson. Doug
Jenson, excuse me. Doug Jacksonis the administrator for the State of Ohio
(01:04):
of nine eight eight and nine eighteight is something that Doug is going to
elaborate a little bit more on.But when you think at nine eight eight
the lifeline, it was established toimprove both the accessibility of crisis services and
to meet the nation's growing suicide andmental health related crisis care needs. And
Doug, I want to welcome you. I can't thank you enough for joining
(01:26):
us today. Thanks box Art isgreat to be with you. And this
is a fantastic opportunity to just bringawareness to what Ohio has as a resource
for mental health crisis. Surely,for the most part, people have heard
of nine eight eight, But justto give us an overview, what is
nine eight eight? Yeah, nineeight eight is a three digit number to
(01:46):
call if you are experiencing a mentalhealth crisis or just need some emotional support.
So it's three digits, easy treemember, and it is statewide,
and it's free and it's confidential forany person to call. By the way,
when was nine eight eight as'ablished? She doesn't feel like it was
too long ago. Yeah, itwas less than two years ago when the
entire nation had to adopt a threedigit numbering that even if you leave Ohio,
(02:09):
you're still going to be able touse nine eight eight as the known
mental health number. But it wasestablished after a one eight hundred numbers that
already existed, there was a littlemore focus just on suicide prevention. What
we realized is we really need toaddress the full mental health needs of a
person. So nine eight eight hasbeen around since July of twenty twenty two.
(02:29):
We expected that people would use it. We know that the need is
there, but what we found isthat more and more people, as they
become aware of it, are usingit. In the calendar You're twenty twenty
three, we had over one hundredand sixty thousand Ohioans contacting nine eight eight
in contact it by calling, texting, or chatting at our website nine eight
(02:51):
eight lifeline dot org. Doug Jacksonis the administrator for the State of Ohio's
nine to eight aid program, andhe's this week's guest on CEOs. You
should know normally it's a CEO thatwe're talking to, but Doug is just
as important because he oversee something thatis what I would like to say.
I mean, say you're saving lives. Doug, wouldn't you say nine eight
(03:12):
eight has saved lives? It absolutelyhas. Yeah. We have story after
story by those who are answering thecontacts that are made of people in need
and really just gaining hope and atleast gaining time to process through the crisis
that they're in and getting additional resourcesto support them so that they do choose
to continue to live. So whensomeone calls nine eight eight, what is
(03:36):
something that they can expect. Yeah, we have over four hundred staff in
the state of Ohio that's part timein full time that are supporting the nine
eight eight network. So we havenineteen different call centers throughout the state,
statewide coverage that really understands Ohioans,the Ohio culture, and the need of
Ohioans. And when they call orcontact nine eight eight, they're going to
(03:57):
get a trained person who's trains tothe sacifically to answer this line. Is
they answer the line, they're goingto first just make sure that the person
is safe. They're going to talkto them about their current status, and
then they're also just going to listen. A listening ear is so helpful,
And as they listen, they're goingto be talking with the person about any
other supports that they might need andthen directing those needs to the local resources.
(04:23):
So local mental health providers and supportsthat are in their community from there
is it. You know, theperson on the other end at nine eight
eight, do they figure out,Okay, this person needs X, Y
and Z, and how fast andthrough is it getting that help? You
know, it's fast to get incontact with somebody who is answering that call
(04:44):
right now. Our response time orspeed to answers about twenty five seconds in
the state of Ohio. So whenyou first call nine eight eight, you
actually have free options that you couldchoose if you need some specific support.
Option one is for veterans to call, so you just dial nine eight eight
and then your first option, optionone, you get veteran services. Option
(05:05):
two is for Spanish speaking individuals,and option three is for individual who might
need specific supports for LGBTQ plus Andso those three options will kind of guide
somebody to the call center that isbest for them. But if they just
need general supports, nine eight eighton its own is then going to move
forward to a contact specialist to answerthat phone. So it is it's very
(05:29):
fast, but people that are contactingnine eight eight. We don't define what
a crisis is, Okay, Acrisis is different for every person, and
so we want people to call ifthey believe that they're in crisis. So
all types of life situations are beinghandled by those contact specialists. What about
cast like you're calling this nine eighteight line. You know someone's in crisis,
(05:53):
I need help. Could some ofthem be afraid to call because they
think, Okay, maybe this isgoing to cost me something. How does
that work? Yeah, that's agreat question because we want to eliminate barriers
to calling, and so to knowthat it is indeed free, is very
important to call to talk to somebodyto work through that crisis on the phone.
There is no cost of that.If the person needs additional supports,
(06:15):
what are contact specialists are trained todo is work with them find supports that
work for the person who's calling.That includes what type of payment method they
might have if they were to getprofessional help, like going to a therapist.
So we want to know, youknow, the person's resources so that
we can help them get it ifit's insurance or private pay or or working
(06:39):
with the agency itself that they mightneed resources from to get that service.
What kind of calls are coming injust people that are down in the dumps?
Is it depression? Is it?I know you talked about veterans that
was one of those options. Butwhat are people going through right now that
maybe some of us don't realize,you know. I like to say that
people are only one day away froma crisis or one moment away from a
(07:00):
crisis, because we never know whatit is that is going to put that
person's life and a situation where theybelieve that they're out of control. And
so sometimes that could be just normallife circumstances that happen. It could be
a relationship issues, it could bework related issues. Losing a job is
a big deal when your financial incomecould be in jeopardy and you might be
(07:23):
losing hope because of that. Medicalconcerns, so we've we've had people call
that just need to process through anew diagnosis and be supported and how they're
going to respond to that personally.Yeah, So it is it is truly
many, many life circumstances that arecalling nine eight eight. Doug Jackson is
the nine eight eight Administrator for theState of Ohio. He is this week's
(07:46):
guest on CEOs. You should know, Doug, what is the difference though,
between nine eight eight and nine toone one. Yeah, it's a
great, a great question. Boththree digit numbers and they're both called for
health, but really nine one oneis about getting an emergency response from police,
ambulance, or fire and nine eighteight is about talking with somebody.
(08:09):
So it is we like to defineit as nine to one one for emergency
response and nine eight eight for mentalhealth crisis. Doug, what are the
goals though with the state wide awarenesscampaign? Yeah, we are launching a
state wide awareness campaign in the monthof May. That is a much broader
scale than what we've had to date. So we wanted to make sure that
nine eight eight was working in thestate of Ohio, and indeed we've proved
(08:33):
that to be true. The contactsthat are being made by Ohioans, over
ninety nine percent of those are beinganswered in state by Ohio call centers.
We have less than one percent rollingover to a national backup center. All
calls are getting answered, but lessthan one percenter out of state. We
know that we've got the workforce thereto do the job, and that's just
(08:54):
very important in today's culture to makesure that we've got workers. And we
spent time building out this system andnow we want to make sure that all
people are aware. So when wedid our marketing research, we found that
not all people were aware of nineeight eight. In fact, only about
thirty six percent of people are awarethat nine eight eight exists for a mental
health resource in Ohio. Wow.Yeah, it seems like everybody should know,
(09:20):
because Hey, I work with thisevery day, I know, so
I just assume everybody else does.But this interview is very important because those
who are listening, you know,we might expect that they know, and
they might not, and to havea mental health crisis and not know that
this exists would be a significant lossfor Ohioland so we want to make sure
all Ohiolands are aware of nine eighteight, and that's our goal as we
(09:43):
enter into this broad scale marketing campaign. Well, Doug, with that,
you know, we have this platform. We're certainly pushing this out and letting
people know about nine eight eight.But how can others help? What can
we do to help help nine eighteight help others around us, our neighbors
or friends, family members. Yeah. I think there's two things that we
(10:03):
can all do, and one isto help destigmatize mental health. Help people
understand that it's okay to not beokay, that all people go through challenges
and struggles and personal struggles and sothat conversation can become normal. It can
become normal in family, that canbecome normal in the workplace. It can
(10:24):
become normal to ask how are youdoing, and when the response is I'm
fine, really digging in a littlebit deeper and seeing if the person is
indeed fine or if they're just maskingit. And that's what our marketing campaign
theme is is kind of asking thequestion at a deeper level and making sure
that people are okay. And thenthe other resource that we I think we
(10:46):
can all do a great job inhelping with is just making sure that the
number itself is made known, whetherthat's in the workplace as we talk,
you know, to other CEOs andother companies, having this as a resources
for your employees, having it inbreak rooms or a sticker on the mirror
in the restroom. Making sure thatit is known by people that this number
(11:11):
exists. It's education. When nineone one rolled out in the nineteen eighties
in Ohio, we did a darngood job of educating all people from school
age all the way up through adulthood, and nine eight eight we have the
same task ahead of us. Weneed to make sure all people are aware
of nine eight eight. Have webroken down some barriers when it comes to
(11:31):
the stereotypes? Have we come alongways? And do we still have a
long ways to go? Doug Youno, we have come a long ways,
and you really hit it, andthat's that we still have a long
ways to go. If there wasany silver lining to the COVID pandemic,
it was that we really started torecognize that people internalize things, they keep
(11:52):
things to themselves, especially in isolation, and we started to really talk about
opening up and being able to sharethose and trying to destigmatize when you have
a personal struggle. And so,yes, we've definitely come a long ways,
and it's through all of our partnersand stakeholders across the state of Ohio,
the local mental health boards and providersof services that have helped just bring
(12:16):
the light to this and start talkingabout it. But we still have a
long ways to go. And that'swhere you know. These can be dining
room table conversations at home, thesecan be conversations and classrooms, these can
be conversations at the workplace, justfocusing on it's okay to not be okay
and if you're not okay, whatdo you do, Doug, is there
(12:37):
a website where people get more infoby nine eight eight, Yes, there
definitely is. Specific for the stateof Ohio nine eight eight dot Ohio dot
gov is going to lead you toour Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction
Services web page. We have specificinformation about nine eight eight on their nine
eight eight information that you can share. Some of it you can just click
(13:00):
on and share for social media.Others you can download so that you could
put it into a company newsletter.But we want to make sure that you
have the resources so that you canshare not just words of mouth, but
really share the information that's provided aboutnine eight eight. Doug Jackson, wealth
of knowledge and very important information administratorfor nine to eight eight for the State
(13:22):
of Ohio. Doug, thanks somuch for your time and really keep up
the good work. Boxer, thanksfor the opportunity. It's been great working
with you on this CEOs You ShouldKnow is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer,
a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
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