Retired Sgt. Kevin Briggs is known as the Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge. For years he patrolled the iconic San Francisco landmark and spoke with people who were considering suicide. He’s in Anchorage this week training local law enforcement and community members in some of the skills he developed when talking people off the edge. Briggs says when police respond to calls of people considering suicide, they need to approach the situation much differently than other types of calls.
BRIGGS: We like to solve things. We wanna go in, solve it, get back out and we go to another call. But with these types of calls, mental illness calls, it takes some time. You gotta be ready to be there for a while, to really listen. And they don’t wanna be judged. They’ve been judged a long time, for the most part. So just to sit there and take in what’s going on with them. Turn your radio down. If there’s two of you maybe you can turn yours off. And your cell phone. Give that person your full attention.
HILLMAN: And what kind of questions should officers ask?
BRIGGS: ‘How are you doing today?’ ‘Tell me what’s going on.’ ‘I’d like to hear your story.’ And then using those active listening skills is just vital. A big one is open-ended questions, to allow that person to talk. ‘Can you tell me what’s going on in your life?’ And to keep them interested in wanting to speak with you. Minimal encouragers. ‘Wow, is that right?’ ‘Really?’ Things like this so they know that you’re listening, that you’re taking an active part in this conversation, and that you do care.
HILLMAN: You make this all sound so simple.
BRIGGS: It’s not. It’s not even simple for me and I’ve been doing it for a long time. (laughs) It’s tough. It’s easy for me to sit here and say it. To go out and do it is another story, it really is. It takes practice.
HILLMAN: How do you cope with your own emotions when going through this process and trying to help somebody else?
BRIGGS: When I was working on the bridge, there’ a couple people that I’ve lost that spoke directly to. Maybe a half hour, one person was an hour. And you build up a rapport with someone, a bond with that individual. And when they take their life in front of you, it’s very, very difficult. It, for me, I feel I failed.
But I know a vast majority of those I speak to, I’ll be able to help. I’m not gonna say I’ll save them. I don’t believe in that. I believe they help themselves. So I don’t think I saved anybody. But I believe I was a conduit on a very bad day for them.
HILLMAN: Some people who are experiencing mental illness aren’t at the point of standing on the bridge, but they’re going through a bad period. How do you help them, and what do you tell them to do to get thought that?
BRIGGS: Take some time for yourself to get out of the house. I, myself, get wound up, locked in my house so to speak. If I can force myself to go out, go to a coffee shop, be around people, it really helps. And to have a list when you know things are coming up, when you’re feeling fine, make a list of things you can do or people you can call to help you. So when you do get into these phases, you can look back at this list and say, ‘Oh! That’s right. I like to go here. This person always tells me to call them when something’s going on.’
And some of us need medication. It’s not for everybody. But if you do, it’s not a shameful thing to do. I have to take it, and I’m still here. I’m just an average Joe. But it helps me. It’s like having high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and I have those too, and I take medications for those. It’s no dishonor or shame.
HILLMAN: Do you feel like you often encounter people who feel stigmatized because they’re experiencing a mental illness?
BRIGGS: Absolutely. All the time, everywhere. And a lot of it is, I would say, self-induced, too. That I never talked about what was going on with me until way late in my career. And when I did, I thought I would lose friends. Maybe get fired or lose my job. None of that happened. I worked myself all up, and it just didn’t need to be, when I could’ve gotten help years earlier. I tell folks, when I would go to work, I’d function at 100%. I was great. But when I went home, I was zero. I could barely even move my arms. And it’s very hard to believe, but I’m telling you, it happened. My body felt like lead. Like cement. So I suffered for a long time until I went and finally got some help. And I still have bad days and some times, but it’s a hell of a lot better than it was.
Anne Hillman is the healthy communities editor at Alaska Public Media and a host of Hometown, Alaska. Reach her atahillman@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Annehere.
