While most high school students complete their SSL hours by volunteering over the summer or with other local non-profits, senior Skye Feinstein has spent her time volunteering with a suicide hotline. Feinstein responds to texts about anything from a bad day to family trauma, and often has three hour-long text chains per weekly shift.
Feinstein began her work with the Samaritans International Mental Health Organization in Oct. after completing a 40-hour text line training course over two weeks in Sept. According to Feinstein, the training taught her how to listen and ask questions while making sure that the texter knows that they are being heard.
“The majority of taking a text is almost entirely just listening and trying to understand,” Feinstein said. “We can empathize. I don’t think that [helping people] is possible without the service that we provide, and without real people on the other end of the line listening and empathizing and understanding.”
Feinstein has struggled with her mental health and finding good care in the past and was drawn to this organization for its ability to help people in the midst of America’s mental health crisis. Feinstein believes her work is important and meaningful because she can provide free and easily accessible mental health care in a time when that type of care is usually very expensive and hard to find.
Under the broader suicide prevention organization, there is the 988 line in which anyone can text or call, and a separate youth line specifically for and by people under the age of 25. This line is called “Hey Sam,” and Feinstein is one of the volunteers for this specific branch. Responding to texts on “Hey Sam” does not just include responding to people at risk of committing suicide, but also includes talking to people with anxiety, depression or any other emotional suffering.
The Samaritans Hope organization has hosted suicide prevention workshops for 180,000 people, and trained over 6,500 volunteers over the past 50 years.
“You have to be a certain kind of person to do that kind of work,” Dean of Students Roz Landy said. “All teenagers are not built to be able to listen carefully without jumping in and telling somebody what to do… [Feinstein] is doing an amazing service for kids who need it, who either don’t want to tell their parents they’re suffering, or can’t afford a therapist or never think about going to a therapist.
Elaine Monaghan, Feinstein’s mom, said her daughter has always had an interest in mental health, and that the work she’s doing now is a way to pursue that passion. Monaghan said her daughter’s curiosity about the way the mind works, coupled with her empathy, makes her able to communicate with people in difficult situations.
“Skye was very motivated to do it [volunteer with the hotline], and it doesn’t seem to be affecting her negatively,” Monaghan said. “If anything, I would say it’s given her an even greater sense of purpose.”
While her volunteering with the organization is not a large commitment in her everyday life, Feinstein plans to continue her work with the hotline and possibly become a paid, part-time employee in the future. She appreciates the role she gets to play in texters’ lives and is glad she’s making a difference.
“I’m not a psychiatrist,” Feinstein said. “I’m not any kind of emergency personnel. I don’t have qualifications to do a lot of things, but what I can do is I can listen. And I think that that’s what’s most important.”