"Imagine this for just a minute," Mass211 Vice President Eileen Davis told a crowd gathered on Tuesday, Feb. 11: "As part of your workday, a pregnant 20-year-old in her 8th month, walking the streets of Boston during a recent snowfall, hand in hand with her young toddler while frantically searching for emergency shelter. A 57-year-old man who was behind in his utility payments because he was taking too much time off from his construction job to help care for his elderly mom, who had terminal cancer. A 14-year-old girl who was calling in the middle of the night in a whispering voice because she's afraid to go to school in the morning in fear her parents will be deported when she's out of the house."
The heartbreaking examples go on and on, Davis said, from a mom of three young kids trying to escape domestic violence to a suicidal young man afraid to tell
his family he's gay.
On 2/11, known as 211 Day, local legislators and special guests, including WCVB's news anchors Maria Stephanos and Jessica Brown, celebrated the team of call takers at Mass211 and its mental health helpline, Call2Talk, for helping these callers and thousands more. Speakers lauded the resilience of the staff and volunteers who take these tough calls all day, every day, 24/7/365, and for doing what can feel like thankless work.
"It takes very special humans to not only answer the phone but to respond to these calls and all callers like this in a compassionate, non-judgmental, empathetic way," Davis said.
As the free, statewide human service information and referral hotline, available by dialing 211 from any phone in the Commonwealth, Mass211 connects callers to local resources, including shelters, food assistance and other vital support programs. Call2Talk, reached at 211 x25, is a National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Crisis Center of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Brown, WCVB's Medical Reporter and NewsCenter 5 co-anchor, watched call takers in action before she spoke at the event about the commonalities between their jobs.
"As a journalist, I'm no stranger to difficult stories—to emergencies, to disaster, to disappointments, really just the harsh realities of life that can be so overwhelming when you encounter them day after day when you hear those stories," Brown said. "It's not easy, as you know, and some days if definitely sticks to you. It's heavy, it can be weighty."
Brown praised the call takers for "showing up for people on their toughest day," helping solve their problems and connecting them with resources that can help.
Framingham Mayor Charlie Sistisky, Superintendent of Schools Robert Tremblay, agency partners and leaders and staff of different United Ways across Massachusetts, which together power Mass211, joined the celebration at Mass211 and Call2Talk's shared hub with the United Way of Tri-County in Framingham.
State Rep. Priscila Sousa, who represents part of the city, recognized that the news lately has resulted in a lot of "panic," and said lifelines like Mass211 and
Call2Talk are crucial.
Echoing her remarks, fellow Framingham state Rep. Jack Patrick Lewis said many people don't have calm, compassionate listeners in their life they can talk to about what they're going through, especially during uncertain times like these.
"Knowing that you're there—that we can tell constituents when they don't know what tomorrow's going to look like, when they're uncertain, they can pick up the phone and call you—really changes everything," Lewis said.
The burden on the call takers may be heavy, Sousa said, but "you don't have to carry it alone."
Katherine, a housing supervisor at Mass211, said it helps to hear praise and recognition because it isn't easy taking tough call after tough call.
"We try really hard to answer these calls with compassion and care," Katherine said. "The last thing we want to do is sound robotic or jaded, which I think can be a common occurrence right now for a lot of people on the hotlines."
As a housing specialist, she knows there seem to be more problems than answers right now.
"When you hear from a caller who's really upset—they're crying or they're angry—and you know that despite the fact that we're in Massachusetts where there are a lot of resources and I have at my fingertips a database with 40,000 resources, that really especially when it comes to affordable housing right now, the solutions are not there, and so how do you kind of walk someone through the persistence that it's going to take and manage their expectations about the months or even years it could take to feel stabilized? That's when it's tough," Katherine said.
She said housing calls may range from a family dealing with an eviction notice after the main breadwinner lost their job, to a man "who's sleeping in his truck
with his dog because he doesn't want to abandon his pet in order to access shelter."
Call takers are trained to listen to people, validate what they're saying and "empower them with resources and hopefully a roadmap to try to improve their situation," Katherine said.
She said the work is purposeful, and call takers know they're part of a great team. "We're all in this together and we're all trying to make a difference," Katherine said.
The ceremony also included remarks from United Way of Tri-County President and CEO and Mass211 Executive Director Paul Mina, Magic 106.7 radio personality David O'Leary and Stephanos, whose work covering the Boston Marathon pulled her away from attending.
Through a pre-recorded video message, Stephanos, a strong mental health advocate, thanked each and every one of the call takers at Mass211 and Call2Talk for making a difference.
"I know firsthand how important their work is and what this means to so many people," Stephanos said.
Lewis said 211 Day is an opportunity to share "how grateful we all are" to have Mass211 and Call2Talk as resources.
A former gay minister who helped launch and lead OUT MetroWest, Lewis said he was forever changed by statistics from the local Risk Assessment Survey 14
or 15 years ago that 1:3 local students identifying at the time as being gay, lesbian or bisexual had not only considered suicide—but had attempted it.
"I remember checking the footnote, asking follow up questions, because this was Massachusetts. I couldn't wrap my mind around that data for Massachusetts," Lewis said. He said suicide prevention programs like Call2Talk and 988 are critical.
"You know you save lives," Lewis told the call takers gathered at the back of the room.
O'Leary, a longtime Call2Talk supporter, talked about his own mental health struggles while echoing the day's theme of resilience.
O'Leary said he gained the same mental endurance or "mental toughness" that call takers share when he started training and running Marathons in recent years.
"The physical activity—running—on a regular basis keeps my depression at bay, and my mental health in check," O'Leary said, and running taught him to have the resilient mindset he needed to get to the finish line.
"It's months and months of training through injury and fatigue and setbacks and snowbanks and crappy weather and self-doubt and all of that piles up and resilience is what really helps you get through that," said O'Leary, who recently volunteered to join Call2Talk's MetroWest LOSSTeam to provide peer emotional support to suicide loss survivors.
The call takers show their strength, Davis said, through physical, mental, emotional, and social resilience just by doing their job and being there for others.
"You, although you may not realize, are the heroes that are saving lives and changing lives, and you're right in the middle of it, and I want to recognize that," Brown told the group.
Brown reported on the Mass211 Day event on the NewsCenter 5 at 4pm that day, after speaking at the ceremony and giving call takers all of her thanks.
"To me you guys are the silent heroes of the story," Brown said, "and I hope you realize the work you're doing is making such an incredible impact."
You can reach Mass211 anytime 24/7 by dialing 2-1-1 or visiting mass211.org. Call2Talk can be reached at 2-1-1 x25, at 9-8-8, or through the direct numbers: 508-532-CALL (2255) or 413-505-5111.