Georgia Focus - DBHDD

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. Nine eight eight was established in July of
twenty twenty two to improve access to mental health crisis
services for Georgians and decreases stigma surrounding suicide and mental health.
Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities is leading
the implementation of the nine to eight eight in Georgia.
Here today to talk about this is Kevin Tanner, the

(00:32):
Commissioner of Georgian Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.
The Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities was recently,
I say recently two thousand and nine, you were formed.
Talk about what you do.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
So we serve as the state mental health authority for
the state. We also serve as the state agency responsible
for serving the infellacial developmental disability population. We also are
the substance abuse authority for the state, and we also
are the suicide prevention authority for the state. So we

(01:09):
wear quite if you've had, and also operate five state
mental health hospitals and serve as the mental health safety
net of the system and.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
To the mental health stuff another that's what we're going
to talk about today. We're gonna talk mainly about the
suicide hotline and so forth. Where are those hospitals located
in Georgia.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, so we have one located here in Atlanta Panthersville
Road in the Cafe County. We have one located out
in Augusta. We have one located in Middlesville, Georgia. We
have one located in Columbus, Georgia. We have one located
in Savannah, Georgia.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Well, you got to cover pretty well. And now the
people that you do deal with people within those hospitals,
and that's just one part of what you do. You
want to talk more a little bit about what you
do side of that. Your area is so big, so broad.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, so we we take care. We have Community Service
Board providers that have twenty two Community Service Board providers
that we find and license through our agency, and they
are the safety net for individuals who have mental illness
that need treatment, that do not have health insurance or

(02:24):
they could be under insured. So they catch the people
that are falling through the crack, so to speak, and
we manage that operation. And then obviously we also have
our nine eight eight system and our mobile crisis teams
and a whole host of other programs that we that

(02:44):
we find and our providers operate and in some cases
we may operate ourselves.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well, that's kudos to you for dealing with all that.
That's a lot of stuff to deal with, love to
deal with.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, we've got people like Camille and a lot of
other good folks here to do a great job for us.
So it may fly up a lot easier when you
got a good staff.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
That's that's very true, very true. Let's talk about the
suicide line, the suicide crisis lifeline. What is the what
is nine eight eight the suicide Crisis Lifeline.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, so ninety eight was launched July sixteenth of twenty
twenty two, and it's a three digit number. That's a
national access line that you can call twenty four hours
a day, seven days a week. You can also text
or chat the number, and it is a way to
reach out to a live train clinician twenty four hours

(03:38):
a day, seven days a week. Good. And it can
be for someone or calling for themselves, or it can
be someone calling for a loved one. But it's a
way to access services or just talk to someone. Maybe
you're filling the press. You need someone to talk to,
you can reach out to ninety eight. It maybe that

(03:59):
you to find a trained professional in your area that
takes your insurance that you're having trouble, or it may
be that you need to go to a crisis center
and you're trying to find out where to go. Whatever
the need is, they're able to help you.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
And you mentioned that this person is qualified. On the
other end, this is someone you're talking to, somebody who
can help you and will help you right away.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, that's correct. They're trained and licensed to be able
to help you, and if need be, they can also dispatch.
Most all of our calls are able to be handled
over the telephone, but in a case where maybe you
need something a little bit more, you need someone to
come out and meet you where you are. Our ninety
to eighteen can dispatch a two person mobile crisis team.

(04:51):
One of those members would be a licensed clinician and
they go all over the state. So no matter where
you are in Georgia, we're able to dispatch a mobile
crisis team to come meet you where you are.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Oh that's great, that is nine to eight eight. What's
the difference between that and nine to one one.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
So nine one one is the easy way to access
the emergency service police fire, someone who needs an ambulance,
somebody who needs a police response. Nine eight eight is
the same, except it's in that mental health emergency or
when you need to access the mental health system. So

(05:32):
it's not calling to get a police response, not calling
to get a fire response, but just calling to get
that mental health response. I'll also see one of the
other big differences is when you call nine one one,
all that information's public records. If I call nine one

(05:52):
one to report a fire, there's a record and somebody
can get access to it, and you call nine eight
eight is anonymous. So everything we do is protected under
patient client privilege, under HIPPAH, and so we're not reporting that.
We're not required under the wall to give that information
out to press or under open records acts or anything

(06:16):
else is to protected information.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Do they give their name? Have to give their name?

Speaker 2 (06:21):
They do not, And if they want to, they can
give as little or as much information as they want,
but they do not have to.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
So they can take us do that just just to
talk to somebody. If that's all you're doing, that's all
you're gonna do. Then you hang up.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
That's exactly right. It may be, you know, two o'clock
in the morning. You may be a college student that's
been struggling with depression and you need to and you
don't feel comfortable talking to your friends or your family.
You can pick up the follow and call ninety eight eight.
Talk to someone on the other end. They will help
walking through UH and you know they feel like you

(06:59):
need to talk to some one and talk to the
professional to help connect you. But it's very low pressure
and they're really there just to help.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
And it is twenty four to seven all the time.
It's open right now, that's right.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
It's twenty four hours of day, seven days a week.
And when I mentioned college students, that made me thinks
I just want to make sure to remind people that
you can also text and chat. Yes, I know I
have three daughters and they would rather text than talk
on the telephone. So that's available, and we have a

(07:33):
lot of young people that use those features.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
I was just going to say that to text it
or chat, you can do that. Don't worry about that.
Nine eight eight is what did you call? Now? What
are the range of possible outcomes from contacting nine eight eight.
I mean, you know, somebody's really depressed, they're going to
kill themselves, they're talking about it. What what can happen?
What do you talk them down?

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, So most of the people who call, the call
is able to be handled, and the cases be able
to be handled. Services rendered just by the phone conversation,
by talking to someone who's trained, who's used to doing
this every day, talking to people every day who may
be struggling. But in some cases it may require mobile

(08:20):
crisis dispatch, and they can dispatch mobile crisis teams come
out and help, and come out and.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Respond and then so they they are there to they'll
get if you had that many many of those calls
happen where people get somebody out there to need respond
right away to them.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yeah. So we receive over twenty thousand calls, text and
cats a month, and so that's we're hitting, you know,
three hundred thousand plus calls a year into the Georgia
nine eight age system and we dispatch. I don't have

(09:00):
the exact number of couple christs fifth patch in front
of the I can get Camil to get that sea
this week. I think it's around two thousand a month.
Two thousand a month that we dispatch mobile crisis teams
in Georgia.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
So you're nine eight eighty is really saving lives. Really,
that's what he's doing. It's really savings for lives somewhere
some some of those people.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Is we did since we did a study back in
twenty twenty two just to look at what was the
awareness of how many people had heard of ninety eight,
and it was only sixteen percent. In twenty twenty four,
we did a follow up study and we found that
eighty four point seven percent of people in Georgia had

(09:43):
heard of ninety eight. The national benchmark number is only
sixty seven percent. So Georgia has done a really good
job and the citizens of Georgia has done a really
good job spreading the word. And we've been very blessed
in Georgia to have First Lady Marty Camp helped really
be a spokesman person for ninety eight, have to spread

(10:06):
the word all that.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, that's great, have it heard with you? That's great,
that's great. Now you mentioned too that somebody, if you
know somebody that may be thinking about that or something,
you can call for them. Is that right?

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Call for that's right? If you're worried about someone else,
whether it's a friend, a family member, or really even
a stranger. If you're worried about someone else, you can
reach out to ninety eight nine eighty eight can provide
referrals for specialized supports. And it doesn't have to be
about you personally. And I would also say and encourage

(10:43):
people to understand you don't have to wait till a
loved one or you were in a crisis before you call.
You can call just because you're not feeling well. So
it's not just for people who are in cristis.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Oh, so you can call anytime, like about if you're
just sort of feeling fitting a little something different, you'd
choose call.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
And now you mentioned too, you can call if you
if you don't know the person but you think they
may be doing something, you can call on behalf of
them anyway.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, if you're talking to someone and you feel like
you need to get some help or you need some
direction on I've got this situation. Maybe i'm you know,
I've worked with someone I don't really know, but I
feel like the behavior has changed. I feel like they
you know, they're depressed, they're there, they maybe they've had
a loss in the family and I just don't know

(11:39):
how to communicate with them. They can reach out about
those happenings.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Okay, okay, what are some of the warning signs that
a loved one has that that maybe it risks for suicide?
What are some of their warning signs?

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, I encourage people if you if you know someone,
you have a loved one, uh, you know their behavior,
watch for changes in the behavior. So if someone's fitly,
outgoing and now all of a sudden they're withdrawn, that's
something you may need to question. Uh, someone who's been
who's typically pretty talkative as starting the experience, they're not

(12:11):
wanting to talk. That may be something you need to
be concerned about. So really changes in behavior. Also, uh,
sleeping more than normal is you know, a sign of depression.
So just keep an eye on your loved ones. And
I always like to remind people that research shows that, uh,
there's this misconception that by talking to someone about suicide

(12:37):
may make someone uh commit suicide, and that's just been
proven to be false. So we encourage people to ask
us questions. Talk to your loved ones, talk to your children,
your spouse, and others. Uh, let them know that it's
okay not to be okay, and it's okay to talk
to someone if they need that.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
It is it's okay not to be okay. You're right,
You're right. Absolutely. Do you do you see certain populations
that this is is older people, younger people, or what's
the most populations.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, we do. We you know about seventy nine percent
of all of the suicides in Georgia or males and
men are four times more likely to die by suicides
than women in Georgia. We also see certain populations, especially
in rural communities. Rural communities, agriculture community, they have a

(13:29):
disproportionate number of calls. We also know that the agriculture
community can be they have a higher suicide rate than
a lot of our other professions. We also get this
course number of calls, I think because they have less
resources in rural communities and there's also more stigma in
rural communities about reaching out for help. And then one

(13:53):
of the things that we also recognize is the second
highest overdose death by any industry according to the CDC
in twenty twenty three was restaurant workers. So there was
two hundred and twenty four suicides among restaurant workers from
twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one in Georgia, and over

(14:14):
half of those were cooks and wait staff. So we
started a campaign with the Restaurant Workers Association called hashtag
eighty six. The stigma if you ever worked in a restaurant,
you know eighty six is when you say, you know,
lead something off or we don't have something. So we
use one of the slame words they're familiar with, and

(14:38):
that had great success. We reached twenty five hundred workers
and over three hundred thousand patrons and they had sixty
million media impressions and we partnered with the Giving Kitchen
and the Georgia Restaurant Association for that. But this one
may surprise you to construction workers have the high rate

(15:00):
of suicide in Georgia, really higher than any other industry.
Suicide rates one hundred and sixty five percent higher than
the Georgia average, one hundred and sixty five percent higher
than the Georgia average. So we're partnering with the Georgia
Construction Industry Advisory Committee. They're providing training, job side materials

(15:23):
and employer twol kit We're really working to reach those
workers where they are on the job side, because that's
a staggering number, one hundred and sixty five percent high.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
It really is a staggering number. You know, you've got
construction workers, restaurant workers, and agricultural workers. I wouldn't have
thought any of those. I don't know why I wouldn't
think that. I just why, that's that's tremendous. Whoa, whoa.
But the construction workers is astronomical, then, yeah, it is, Yeah,
it is.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah. We really look to try to utilize our resources
and send our resources in the areas where we're going
to get the highest return.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah. Oh man, well are there now? You're you're the number.
You call it from anywhere in Georgia. You don't have
to if you're out in the middle of nowhere, out there,
way out there in the in the peanut fields and
pine trees of Georgia, you can call. Call anywhere, call it.
Call if it's a little problem, call right, that's.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Right, Text chat, call anywhere anytime. Ninety eight.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
You know, how can we reverse the stigma that's associated
with mental health because the stima you know, you don't
think some MILLI ill like I'm not gonna call them on
a call. How do you reverse that?

Speaker 2 (16:35):
I think we're doing it right now today on this
call to be honest with you. I think the more
we talk about it, Yeah, the more we people hear
about it, the more we normalize that conversation, the more
people are Just like, we went from a sixteen percent
awareness rate in twenty twenty two to an eighty four
plus percent awareness rate in twenty twenty four for ninety eight.

(16:59):
So the more people hear about it, I think we're
turning the tide on stigma. We still see it in
certain pockets more than others, like in rural communities. So
one of the things we did in ural Georgia is
we started the Faith in farm Initiative where we started
working with pastors and spouses of farmers, talking to them

(17:21):
about how to talk to the folks and their congregation,
how to talk with their spouses about their mental health.
And so that's had that's gotten some good traction around
the rural community. And we utilize farmers, so we had
farmers do videos and farmers do trainings about where they

(17:42):
were opening up and telling about their own personal struggles.
And you know, if you see a big tough cattle
farmer talking about their own mental health. It makes you think,
you know what, maybe it's okay if I talk about
mine too.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah. Yeah, that's a very good point, very true, I
would imagine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got to get them
talking about it first of all. Yeah, that's true. And
then then they call ninety eight and there you go.
You got something going. Are your frust facing needing challenges
right now? With the rolloute of ninet eighty eight, You.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Know, I think the awareness is obviously one thing making
sure people are aware of it with you know, the
nine one one system took several decades to really stand
up and to build out, so nine eight eight is
going to take some time. I always refer to nine
eighty eight as the US button because it's more than
just a phone number. Nine eight eight's an entry point

(18:36):
into a continuum of care. So nine eight eight is
a is a place to call in, a safe place
to talk to someone who is trained, but it's also
a place to access service if you need someone to
come to you through mobile crisis. It's also access to
a safe place to go. So if you need to
come in to a crisis center and spend two or

(18:57):
three days to be stabilized. Nine eight eight can access
that level of care for you too. So it's a
working progress and we're definitely not there yet where we
want to be at, but we're definitely making great strives.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
What's the most important thing besides nineteen ninety eight eight,
which we're doing now, we're getting it out now, what's
the most important thing you want to do to tell
people right now while you're talking to this whole state
right now, what do you want most important thing you
want to tell them to do? Well?

Speaker 2 (19:27):
I think just letting them know that nine eight eight
is not just a three digit number, but really it's
not a number that can save a life. You know,
whether you're worried about yourself, you're worried about a love one,
you're worried about a teammate on your football team, a
co worker, but that health is available right here in Georgia,

(19:50):
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. That
helped is free, it's confidential, and as we often say,
it's okay not to st be okay, it's also okay
to ask for help. So help is there, and we
encourage people to take advantage of that opportunity.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
Absolutely right. Help is there, always help because we as
they say that the suicide is a it doesn't solve anything.
It doesn't solve anything, not one thing. So that's always helped,
always somebody out there. On nine eight eight, I guarantee
you is anything else you need to add your agency
is so huge. Anything else you want to.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
Talk about the only last thing I will say too
on ninety eight. You know, if someone if you are
someone you know it's struggling with addiction and you are
to a place where you're trying to find resources to
help with an addiction, they can also reach out to
nine eight eight. Nine eight eight can also connect them

(20:46):
with addiction services. But even if that person's not necessarily
looking or needing mental health services, but it's purely an
addiction type related call, we're also available to help with
that too. Through nine eight eight.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
It's Kevin Tanner, Commission of Georgia's Department of Behavioral Health
and Developmental Disabilities. If you or someone you know need
some help, call nine eight eight twenty four to seven
three hundred and sixty five days a year, or you
can visit nine eight eight lifeline dot org. That's nine
eight eight lifeline dot org. The Alzheimer's Foundation of America

(21:20):
has launched a newly redesigned website to help connect families
affected by Alzheimer's disease and other dementia related illnesses. Charles
Fuschillo is President and CEO of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
So we're very proud of the newly redesigned website. It
helps connect families affected by Alzheimer's disease and other related
illnesses with such important services and programs that we offer
here at the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Now you have a lot of new things on there,
different things like your staff and who you have and
who you what you do for Alzheimer's some of those things.
Have they already started to use it now?

Speaker 3 (21:58):
Yeah? Absolutely. So the help line is staffed by Licensed
Social Work because it's a toll free number and that's
eight sixty six two three two eight fourty four, and
we emphasize that on the homepage of the website. Along
with the virtual helpline Assistant Allison, so John, we went
into the AI world last year and created an avatar,

(22:22):
and Allison is a virtual helpline assistant that's available twenty
four hours a day. Our helpline that staff by license
social work is that a dementia specifically trained is available
from nine am to nine pm, seven days a week
Eastern standy time. But in the hours that our staff
is an avaiable individuals can find out any information that's

(22:45):
on the website or relating to Alzheimer's disease by talking
to Allison.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
And they can look on that too by talking to
her also, but also you can find help by going there.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
Right, absolutely, And it's a free resource. And it is
a question that she can't answer, a helpline ticket will
come up, it will go to one of our social
workers and they'll respond. And this is a whole new
way to communicate with caregivers and families that are concerned
about a loved one or concerned about themselves.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
Yeah, that's true. That's true. If you're concerned about yourself
or a loved one, you just go on the website
and look it up and there it is.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:24):
Absolutely. And one of the other things that we stress
on our website too is a virtual memory screening. We'd
like to call it a check up from the neck up.
It's simple, it's quick, it's non invasive, and it's a
screening that could consist of a series of questions John
that test an individuals thinking skills, language, and their memory

(23:46):
as well.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
That's interesting. I'm gonna go do that. I'm going to
check it out.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, you should schedule an appointment by just clicking on
the website and it takes about ten to fifteen minutes
of your time. But like everything else that you do
with a primary care physician on an annual basis, when
you do routine screening of various things that we're pertaining
to your health, with the memory screening, you'll get a

(24:11):
baseline score as well.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
Well, I'm going to check that out. I got to
check it out. That's great, that's good you have that.
You have that, because I know so many people don't
want to go somewhere and get screened, but they can
get screened right on your website.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
You could just do it right here exactly, you know.
And one of the other things too is the websites
available in both English and Spanish. But you could also
increase the font too, and you could change the size
of the text on the website as well. So we're
you know, we're complying with the Americas with disabilities acting
to it enhance successibility for individuals with disabilities, and we're

(24:47):
very proud of the new website. It's easy to read,
but what's critically important is it provides the information that's
necessary for individuals when they're concerned about themselves as a
care giver with caring for somebody they love.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Can you give out the website?

Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yes, it's a l z FDN dot org. The national
toll free helpline that's staffed by our licensed social workers
is eight sixty six two three two eight four A
four Help is just a phone call away, John.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
The website, again is a l z FDN dot org.
For questions of comments on today's program, you can email
me John Clark at Georgiannewsnetwork dot com. Thanks for listening.
I'll talk to you next week right here on your
local radio station on Georgia Focus.