A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: Despite recent cuts across the country to mental health programs under the Trump administration, Teen Line is still picking up the phone. Teen Line's a free mental health support service funded entirely by grants and private donations. Now, here's how it works. Teens can text, call or email and reach a volunteer who might understand where they're coming from. Now, the reason they might understand where they're coming from is because the volunteers are also teens. I stopped by their office in West Los Angeles to learn more.
SANAYA: What's been going on tonight?
MARTÍNEZ: Every night between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Pacific time, around a dozen volunteers, all between the ages of 14 and 19, start their shift at Teen Line.
SANAYA: Is there something that happened today that, like, kind of tipped you over the edge, or has it been going on for a while?
MARTÍNEZ: That is 16-year-old volunteer Sanaya (ph). In line with the organization's privacy policy, we're only using first names for minors. Like many other volunteers, she hears from teens and younger kids across the U.S. and around the world.
SANAYA: I mean, it really - it sounds exhausting, all that pressure to, like, get good grades and do well in school.
MARTÍNEZ: Fifteen-year-old Max is another volunteer.
MAX: I think one of the most important parts of being a crisis worker is knowing yourself and knowing how you respond to it.
MARTÍNEZ: Max says it takes a lot of reflective listening and empathy. Now, before they ever take a call or answer a text or email, each volunteer completes 65 hours of training. Working with a professional, they learn about depression, abuse, self-harm, active listening.
MAX: We don't really solve that person's problems. But what we can do is listen to them, validate them, make them feel really heard, like, in a moment that they might really need it.
MARTÍNEZ: Seventeen-year-old volunteer Emerson says teenagers are often more likely to open up to their peers.
EMERSON: Because we are teenagers who are going through that same experience, it really gives us a better insight into maybe what they're going through and what's maybe worked for us or our friends or our peers.
MARTÍNEZ: Emerson says he hears a lot of what you'd expect from teenagers - problems with relationships, school, family - but it also goes deeper.
EMERSON: Being a teenager is such a time of figuring out who you are and what you stand for and what your beliefs are. And when we see such a divided country that - we do see those conflicts in the home of picking sides and fighting with your family and your loved ones and your friends about those things.
MARTÍNEZ: The volunteers also sometimes hear from people in crisis experiencing abuse or having suicidal thoughts. And if the conversation gets really intense, there's always a trained adult there to help them debrief. Cheryl Eskin is Teen Line's senior director.
CHERYL ESKIN: They're pulling them outside to take a walk. They're meeting with them and their peers just to make sure that they're OK.
MARTÍNEZ: In 2024, Teen Line had nearly 9,000 people reach out, most from across the U.S. but also from places as far away as Japan and Tanzania. This year, they estimate they'll hear from at least 10,000. And while they don't use taxpayer money to operate, it's still too early to tell if the funding cut to government-supported mental health programs could affect how many calls Teen Line takes in. Eskin says a growing trend is younger callers, 9- and 10-year-olds reaching out for support. And she says that worries her.
ESKIN: That's hard for me. It's hard for our teens as well, too, to, you know, hear a 10-year-old in that much pain or struggling. If you're 17, there's at least a glimmer of hope of maybe getting out of your house or getting out of your bad situation. But a 10-year-old in a bad situation is like - it feels a little less hopeful.
MARTÍNEZ: Eskin says young people today are dealing with stressors that did not exist for previous generations - things such as school shootings and social media.
ESKIN: I think cyberbullying was something that wasn't a reality when I was a teen. People were always cruel, but they had to be cruel in person.
MARTÍNEZ: With smartphones and evolving AI technology, the same phone they used to call for help might also be what triggered their distress in the first place. Eskin says she expects to see AI play a bigger role in mental health support in the future.
ESKIN: Almost every night, we probably get asked, are you AI? Are you a bot? And they don't want it to be.
MARTÍNEZ: She says a chatbot is not a substitute for the kind of help her volunteers can offer.
ESKIN: Our teens show up. Even in the darkest times, even with the darkest things going on in their lives, too, they show up.
MARTÍNEZ: And that gives her hope for the future, which Max also feels when they speak to other teens online.
MAX: You come out on the other side of that call and that person's still with you, realized there was something worth living for and something that they cared enough to stick around to see happen. And I think that resiliency of humans is what I like to try to take away, instead of just the fact that we struggle. It's the fact that we persevere through it.
MARTÍNEZ: If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can dial or text 988 and be connected to help. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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