This is the FCB Podcast Network. This is the Jeff and Nick Show. Welcome to the Jeff, Lori and Nick Show. This is Garvil Morral, producer of the show. I'm sitting in for Jeff, Loria and Nick. Today. We have a lot of things to discuss this week. We have three great guests on to share some very important information with us. Today we have Mark ONUSCO Behavioral health Prevention specialist, co chair of the SUSSI Prevention Coalition, and with the Adams Board, we have Robert Fleet, public Information Officer of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority GCRTA. And Sharon jink Is, Director of Marketing for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. How are you all doing? First of all, welcome to the show, all three of you. Thank you, it's going to be here. Thank you. Thank you for having us doing well. Hope you're well, absolutely absolutely so. Um Mark, can you talk us a little bit about this new partnership between Adam's Board and the RTA. Yeah. Absolutely. The RTA, in collaboration with the Adams Board, is installing science at Tower City Tote to promote the new three digit dialing code for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which is nine eight And Sharon, I don't know if your Robert want to speak on the messaging of that campaign or what we did was we we worked with the Adams Board for the Creative and it's from their tool Kid And basically the message of the campaign is for the public. Anyone seeing the message, so it's for them or someone that they might know who is struggling or in crisis, is to let them know that some health is available and then the quick answer is to call or text nine eight eight. That's the resource to use. Ninety eight offers twenty four seven access to train crisis counselors who can help individuals experiencing mental health related distress that could include thoughts of suicide, mental health or substance use crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress. And what's the difference for because obviously this is news, So what's the difference between nine eight eight and nine one one? Yeah, I can speak to that. So both in ninety eight eight and nine one one are national dialing codes that streamline access to services. Nine one one is still the right resource if someone is an immediate danger, like during an act of suicide attempt or when someone needs police or medical response. However, nine eight can help when someone's experiencing mental health or substance use related to stress. Like Sharon mentioned that that might include having thoughts of suicide or when they need to find information to help themselves or loved ones. Okay, okay, and Sharon, walk us through the campaign itself. What will people be seeing or hearing and will be looking at the messaging and stuff like that. Walk us through with a campaign it's going to look like. Sure, Well, j CRTA is participating in this initiative and this is national and local. This is our effort to work with our partner at dm sport at Partners on our TAM we are helping to put out messaging Canarily. We started with our heavy rail line and this falls in line with a recommendation made by the Federal Transit Administration which abbreviate as the FTI, which issued a safety advisory in December, and that means that they asked or encourage transit agencies to implement, update or expand suicide prevention signage and messaging campaigns that applied best practices for reducing suicide attempts and that is because in the United States, suicide is the leading cause of fatalities on public transit, with most suicide events occurring on heavy rail infrastructure, which that is a rail line, and that is our Red Line that comes to Cleveland. So we started with working. We reached out to the Atoms Board and they gave us a toolkit, and we implemented some of the creative that was in that toolkit, and we made some stickers or about four inch and four inch square stickers, and we produced those and those have been applied to all of our rail vehicles, both on our heavy rail line which is our Red Line, and on our light rail line which is our Ballooning dream Lines. We just did all of the trains, and then we also put the stickers in areas in the various train stations so visitors can see that we're doing. Add our main Bab Tower City station, we have these backlit signs that we'll be showing as well as other signers in the area there. And then our researchers suggest suicide prevention signings with an intervention that can save lives, signage that includes a hotline or crisis center information such as the nine eight eight suicide and crisis likeline. It's particularly effective and encouraging mental health interventions. So we're gonna have signage with the car cards going to be up in our trains and buses as well and word of mouth correct And i'd just averted to these cark cards and those are signs that are up in the rails inside vehicles and we're doing that as you mentioned, in our coaches, which are our buses throughout the county as well as um in all of the real cars. And we'll also be adding stickers to our coaches and paratransit as well. And I think stations and H and H Robin, I'm gonna go to you next talk a little bit about why you all at GCRTA thought that this campaign was important, that was important for you all to participate in this and work with Adamsport, he said earlier. In the United States, suicide is dating laws of fatalities of public transit, with most suicide events occurring on heavy rail infrastructure. Now, according to data reported to the National Transit Data Events suicides consistently accounted for overt of all transit fatalities over the past decade, and the number of suicide events on public transit have been turning upwards and as Sharing said earlier as well, the FDA as a safety advisory to encourage the transit agencies to help implement, update or expand any kind of suicide prevention signage and message and campaigns that we may have, and we saw this as a great opportunity to pair off with ATOMS. We've been really working closely with the ATOMS board with our transit police department with helping the shelter lists homeless and drug overdose or drug dependent individuals. We have crisis intervention specialists who ride with our transit police to help in situations as well. And we had this partnership long before we asked him to help us out on this campaign suicide devention campaign. Absolutely absolutely And and Mark, I'm gonna go to your next So obviously, like I said, this is new, and you know, people are have been familiar with nine one one for years. Why was nine eight eight needed? Why Why was there a need to create another, a separate number specifically for this Yeah, an important question. Too many people are experiencing suicidal crisis or mental health related to distress without the support and care they need. Not only in the county but around the country, and it can be really difficult to remember a long phone number while in the midst of a crisis. So these urgent realities have really been driving a need for new crisis policies and resources like ninety eight so that anyone can access care when and where they eat it. And though these numbers, suicide numbers are astonishing, and one life lost is always too many, it's important that ninety eight really communicates that there's hope out there. So the ninety eight Lifeline helps thousands of struggling people overcome suicidal crisis or mental health or substance use related distress every day. And in twenty twenty one, our crisis and resource hotlines and Kuyahoga County received nearly one hundred and five thousand calls, and we know those numbers have only increased since the implementation of ninety eight midway through last year as well. So when people call on nine eight eight, Um, what what happens is after that? And someone's in crisis and they need they need help and they call nine eight eight, what like what happens after that? Yeah? Absolutely? Um, So when somebody calls nine eight eight, that's of course available twenty four to seven. UM, They're immediately connected to a trained crisis counselor who can help individuals that are experiencing any type of mental health, suicide or substance use related to stress. They are going to provide some listening and support and connect them to resources and overall to be a confidential and compassionate support UM that's accessible and free to everybody. So it's really kind of case by case, whatever the caller might need, they're going to be that listening year and that connection to resources. And this is uh, this is nationwide, right, nine eight eight is national? Right? Correct? Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, UM. But one really important feature of nine eight eight as well is that even though it is nationwide UM, a person will be directed by their area code and so they will connect with their most local UM nine eight eight call center. UM. So you know, if somebody has a two one, six or four four zero area code, for example, they'll be connected to the local call center. And it's not just a national database. Okay, that's good. That's that's good. So they'll be able to to get directly to the to the help that they that can access them the quickest and the best and stuff. So that's that's really good. Um, Sharon, So you guys are running this, uh this campaign Adams War in RTA and to increase awareness. How can if people who are listening want to help spread the word, how can how can you know the average person help spread the word? About nine eight eight now really really goes to market. I'll help out. It's to visit the Atoms Board website which is for Cuihoba County and learn about crisis services available on Cuihoba County. To request ninety materials for your workplace, which again is a toolkit that is available through the Atoms Board. And there's all sorts of resources for posters, signs, cards, all kinds of things to print off and you can display hand out so you could use those for your workplace, your church or any other group. You can sign up for suicide prevention training. You can join the Suicide Prevention Coalition, which is composed of organizations, community members or survivors dedicated to instilling hope, raising awareness, providing education, and promoting resources in order to reduce the incidents suicide and suicidal behavior and Caihoba County. Basically, just encourage your friends and loved ones, your parents, teenagers, anyone in your life to help put the crisis hotline into the contacts in their phone because you never know you might need it or someone you see or no you needs it. And lastly, there is hope and there is help absolutely. And Robert, when will the and I don't forgive me if this came out earlier in the interview, I'm not sure, but when when will the campaign start rolling out? Has it started rolling out already or will it be rolling out in the future. We've already initiated the campaign and we are already implementing the items from the tool kit onto our trains and buses. We're in the process of getting the signage for the backlits signs out of Towers City. So it is a rollout campaign that we initiated and some things will get out there faster. The stickers have just been produced than we're shipping them out to our districts to be added onto the buses and trains, and it's moving forward. That's true. That's the trains already. It will be added to our buses. The banquet signs should be up either this week or next. We get the latest and those will be on display through April of twenty twenty four, and when we install the car cards inside all of our rail and coach vehicles, those also will be up and on display through April of twenty twenty four. And we are working in cooperation with our advertising contractor, Lamar Advertising, which is the company that we use to sell advertising for our vehicles and our shelters. And Lamar has helped out with an in kind contribution of donating advertising space both at Tower City and inside our rail vehicles so their local will also appear as a partners. Awesome. Awesome, that's good stuff. So before we before we begin to wrap here and mark for people who who have people in their life who may be struggling. Are their warning signs that they can look for? What should they do? Like people who they think something's wrong, they think something's going on, but they really don't know what to do to try to help. So walk people through that. What should they be looking for? How can they help? What should they be doing? Yeah, so I think the biggest thing to look out for is any significant changes in that person's behavior or their appearance. And so if you notice somebody has been maybe much more socially isolated, or maybe they're not really can be keeping up with their hygiene or appearance quite as much. They're not engaged in their work or school activities as much as they used to be. Perhaps they're sleeping a lot more or a lot less. Those can all be signs of um just significant patterns of change over time that somebody has noticed, and there's going to be no better person to notice that then a friend, family member, or a loved one. In addition to that, too, if somebody's been seeming particularly satre down for a long period of time, if they're expressing thoughts of hopelessness or helplessness, or if they're more even more explicitly stating thoughts such as you know, I don't want to be here anymore, or sharing that they haven't they've had thoughts of taken their own lives. So it really can vary. But trusting your gut instinct and noticing those changes and patterns, I think it's going to be most helpful and not being afraid to open up and have a conversation with that person. Absolutely. And so if people want to get more information on the campaign that you guys are doing, more information about nine and eighty eight, where do they go. What do they do if there's a website and social media or where have you. Where do people go if they want to get more information? Yeah, any information about any of the Adam's Board initiatives or ninety eight specifically, you can go to the Adam's Board website, which is a d A m HSCC dot org. So let's say adam HSCC dot org. We have information out there about nine eighty eight other suicide prevention resources UM and Sharon or Robert, I'm not sure if you're wanting to share any information from RTA. We have QR codes on our stickers in our vehicles as well as the nine eight eight UM hotline advertised on the promotional materials that we have installed on our vehicles and in our stations. Okay, awesome, awesome, Thank you, Thank you all, Mark Robin the sheriff for coming on the show, and thank you for the amazing, incredible work that all three of you are doing to increase awareness is something that's very important. Thank you also, thank you, thank you, thanks so much, and thank you to our audience for joining as well as always, we definitely appreciate it, and like Jeff says, he's fighting the good fighting we can all do better. We'll see you next time. Wow wow wow wow. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where real talk lifts. Visit us online at FCB podcasts dot com.
