Examining the Experience of Teen-to-Teen Crisis Line Work for Adolescent Volunteers: A Pilot Study

Suicidal thoughts and behaviors are high and increasing among youth. Crisis lines are one of the oldest downstream approaches for suicide prevention, which have demonstrated effectiveness for adults and preliminary effectiveness for youth. Teen-to-teen (t2t) crisis lines are a unique resource where adolescent volunteers help their similarly aged peers (through texts, chats, calls, and emails). However, no research to date has examined the impacts of t2t crisis line volunteering on the youth. The goal of this pilot study is to begin to evaluate the experience of t2t crisis lines for the youth volunteers. Adolescent (n=20, ages 15-20) volunteers were recruited from two of the largest crisis lines in the U.S. – Teen Line and YouthLine. Enrolled volunteers were administered surveys assessing positive/helpful experiences, negative/unhelpful experiences, and motivations for joining the t2t crisis line. Volunteers were assessed up to five times over the course of one year; once at baseline and then every three months for up to one year (baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up, 9-month follow-up, 12-month/1-year follow-up). Direct content analysis was used to examine the experiences and motivations of volunteering on the crisis line. Preliminary results indicate that all volunteers reported some positive aspects of the t2t line experience, and many reported some negative aspects as well.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/gradposters2023_sciences/1011/thumbnail.jp

Ethnoracial Disparities in Rates of Non-Natural Causes of Death After the 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak in New York State

Introduction: COVID-19 was associated with increases in non-natural cause mortality in the U.S., including deaths due to drug overdose, homicide, and motor vehicle crashes. Initial reports indicated higher rates of non-natural mortality among ethnoracial minority groups. This report aims to clarify these disparities by documenting trends in non-natural mortality across ethnoracial groups during the 2020 COVID-19 surge in New York State. Methods: We report monthly trends in non-natural cause mortality (overall and stratified by ethnoracial status) in New York State from January 2019 through December 2020, which included the COVID-19 onset in March 2020. Results: Total mean monthly unintentional overdose rates per 100,000 increased from 17.45 (before surge: January 2019–February 2020) to 23.19 (after surge: March 2020–December 2020) (mean difference=5.73, 95% CI=3.82, 7.65; p<0.001). Mean monthly homicide death rates increased from 2.34 before surge to 3.55 after surge (mean difference=1.20, 95% CI=0.60, 1.81; p<0.001), with the increase seen primarily in the non-Latinx Black population. Although increasing unintentional overdose death rates before surge equally affected non-Latinx White, Latinx, and non-Latinx Black persons, they remained high for non-Latinx Black persons but dropped for the other 2 groups after the pandemic onset. None of the ethnoracial subgroups showed significant increases in suicide or motor vehicle crash death rates. Conclusions: Non-Latinx Black persons showed disproportionately high and sustained increased rates of unintentional overdose and homicide death rates after the 2020 COVID-19 surge in New York State. Fatality review and death scene investigation research is needed to better understand these disparities