Join Selfie Day for #CallTextLive Campaign

In our region and nationwide, too many youth and young adult suicides bereave families, communities and schools. Businesses are also impacted as many adult employees and leaders were lost to suicide as well. In the aftermath, lives were cut short and so much promise left unrealized.

Suicide, a serious issue locally and nationally that claims the lives of 44,000 people annually, is the 10th leading cause of death nationwide and second leading cause for people aged 15-24.
PRS, Inc. is a nonprofit that runs Northern Virginia’s crisis hotline and textline; and we are marking September’s Suicide Prevention Month by launching the #CallTextLive Campaign to engage the community.

Using the hashtag #CallTextLive, the Campaign works to educate the community about resources available and actions they can take to bring awareness to suicide prevention and intervention. In fact, a simple call or text to a crisis hotline or textline often provides the empathetic, trained voice that someone in crisis needs to reduce his/her pain and provide alternatives and connections to care.

The #CallTextLive Campaign has a variety of events and actions to bring suicide prevention to the forefront. Throughout the month, we will post these on a web-based interactive calendar at www.prsinc.org/calltextlive. In addition, we are sharing tips and resources via social media and asking people to share their stories and photos on PRS Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #CallTextLive hashtag as well as posting Stories of Hope--video vignettes from survivors, family members, and hotline volunteers.

A highlight of the month is Selfie Day on September 21 when friends, community, and clients show support.by tagging themselves on selfies on our Facebook and other social media pages using #CallTextLive. We have t-shirts available for purchase for PRS Selfie Day. We also encourage the community to join the PRS team a variety of walks/runs during the month.

For every death, 278 people manage to move past thoughts of suicide and survive. PRS supports this through its CrisisLink program, which handled nearly 34,000 crisis calls and exchanged over 33,000 crisis text messages from the Northern Virginia region last year. Any time of the day or night, the PRS CrisisLink Hotline can be reached at (800) 273-TALK [8255] and the textline by texting "CONNECT" to 85511.

By participating in #CallTextLive, we can turn up the volume, and make it okay to have a conversation, make a call or send a text.