AWS Re:Invent Hackathon For Good 2019

Vibrant Challenge + PRFAQ

CHALLENGE

To help Vibrant Emotional Health, your challenge is to *develop a service that builds personalized safety plans* for people calling the Lifeline. Safety plans empower callers to identify when they may be at risk, how to cope, and how to get help whenever they need it. This service will allow counselors to easily create the plan in real-time with the caller and give the person calling the Lifeline an engaging tool that they can reference and customize independently. This service should provide access to a safety plan and resources without requiring contact information.

PRESS RELEASE

*Vibrant Emotional Health Marks First Anniversary of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s Groundbreaking Safety Plan Services*

NEW YORK, NY (January xx, 202x) – Vibrant Emotional Health, the nonprofit administrator of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, is marking one full year since the launch of their groundbreaking Safety Plan Initiative. Every Lifeline caller now receives a personalized, interactive, and accessible safety plan developed with a Lifeline counselor via email and/or SMS within ten minutes after their call ends. The Safety Plan Initiative is a critical tool for Lifeline counselors and has proven to be life-saving for callers in suicidal crisis and emotional distress.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is the nation’s confidential and 24/7 mental health crisis hotline, and is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and administered by Vibrant. Calls to the Lifeline are answered by trained counselors at over 160 locally-funded and operated crisis centers that comprise the Lifeline network. In 202x, the Lifeline answered over x million calls from people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress across the United States.

Lifeline counselors have been proven to help suicidal callers stay safe by actively listening to callers’ problems, collaborating with them to identify ways to cope, and connecting them to care. But while Lifeline calls are effective at helping callers navigate immediate crisis, the Safety Plan Initiative empowers Lifeline callers by helping them craft longer-term strategies to help themselves through future emotional distress. By working with counselors to create a safety plan in real-time, Lifeline callers are able to identify their personal signs of crisis, their most effective coping strategies, the people in their lives that can help them in difficult times, and the resources and providers available in their area.

The Safety Plan Initiative was first developed by participants in the 2020 AWS Hackathon event, with the majority of code from that event incorporated into the final product. Lifeline safety plans are confidential, customizable, and accessible by computer and mobile phone. All safety plans are also accessible by the visually-impaired and deaf/hard of hearing communities, and available in Spanish and over 50 languages via translation service. Each safety plan is fully interactive and adaptable, allowing each caller to add and remove resources and tools as their needs change. Options include connecting to the Lifeline chatbot for real-time assistance, visiting the Vibrant Safe Space for calming tools and distractions, connecting to a local crisis center, watching videos of coping exercises, taking in-app CBT courses, calling the Lifeline or a loved one, and more. Users can also download and print their safety plans to keep with them or share with a health provider.

“Collaboration is the heart of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline,” says Shari Sinwelski, Associate Director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Assistant Vice President of National Networks for Vibrant Emotional Health. “The Safety Plan Initiative allows Lifeline counselors to more actively engage with callers and help them identify the connections and care that work best for them, while giving callers a tangible tool that they can utilize long after the call ends. By empowering people in crisis to find support, we can help save lives and build a more connected society.”

Vibrant has fully integrated the Lifeline Safety Plan into its national recommended best practices for crisis centers across the country, and will continue to expand the tool to incorporate additional supports for people in crisis. Independent research will also begin to evaluate the tool’s long-term impact in 202x.