A thread on #suicideprevention and #mentalhealth based on an event that happened on this date in 2005. npr.org/2015/03/06/390… 1/8
Kevin Berthia lived in the SF Bay Area. His family had medical and financial difficulties. Berthia was depressed and went to the Golden Gate Bridge. "Before March 11, 2005, I never even went to the bridge. ... I didn't even know how to get there. I had to ask for directions." 2/8
Berthia stepped over the railing and turned around. He said that at the time, he "just felt like a failure. All I gotta do is lean back and everything is done. I'm free of all this pain." That's when @CHP_HQ Officer Kevin Briggs came on the scene and started talking to him. 3/8
As Berthia described his conversation with Officer Briggs for @StoryCorps: "We talked for 92 minutes about everything that I was dealing with. My daughter, her first birthday was the next month. And you made me see that if nothing else, I need to live for her." 4/8
Officer Briggs took Berthia to a hospital. They didn't see each other for years. 8 years later, Berthia's mother wrote to Briggs, and the two met again: "it was just like two old friends. ... That was the first time I was able to talk about everything that happened that day." 5/8
Officer Briggs "reassured [Berthia] that it was OK to talk about" the event. In fact, the officer himself understood the difficulty, having dealt with his own struggles. "I've found that out with my own depression and things that I kept bottled up for decades." 6/8
Kevin Berthia wasn't the only one Briggs saved. In fact, he's "credited with talking more than 200 people out of jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the world’s most prominent suicide locations ... during the 18 years he patrolled the bridge." 7/8 pressdemocrat.com/article/news/p…
An @FCC initiative I'm very proud of was the designation of 988 as a 3-digit number for #suicideprevention and #mentalhealth. 988 will go fully live in July 2022. Here's hoping it, like Officer Briggs, will be a life-saver for those who are struggling. 8/8 fcc.gov/sites/default/… 
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