Technology can serve as a lifeline - Boston Herald

Tragically, for far too many, suicide is seen as the only option to end their pain. Using technology as a lifeline may be a crucial way to save lives.

As the Herald’s Marie Szaniszlo reported, an example played out in Randolph this week when a 911 text came into the Randolph Police Department from an address on Highland Avenue, an apartment number and a message: “I no longer have any reason to live.”

Officers were dispatched to the address. Detective Kristen Gagnon and Officer Richard Lucey arrived at the apartment minutes later. A woman answered the door but had no idea why they were there. The officers asked if anyone else was in the apartment, and she said her brother was in the bedroom.

When they tried the door, it was locked, and the 23-year-old man wasn’t answering. They asked for his phone number and confirmed with their dispatch center that the text had come from that number. Then Lucey kicked in the door.

“At first, it looked like no one was in there, until his sister turned to her left toward the closet behind us,” Gagnon said, “and we noticed her brother hanging from a shirt in the closet.”

The officers pulled him off the hook and onto the floor, where they found he had a pulse and was still breathing.

“I said, ‘It’s going to be OK,’ ” Gagnon said, “and he started crying.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported earlier this year that suicides increased by 35 percent in Massachusetts between 1999 and 2016 — and a similar trend can be seen in nearly every state.

More than half of those who died by suicide did not have a known diagnosed mental health condition. Undoubtedly, the stigma felt by many of those suffering from mental illness remains a major factor.

The desperate text the Randolph Police received was also the first the department had received since “Text to 911” went live Friday in all 232 of the state’s 911 centers. The text option gives people who are not comfortable or unable to call another choice. Thankfully, the 23-year-old man on Highland Avenue knew about it.

“We’re just thankful we were there to help him in his time of need,” Gagnon said. “Had he not texted, we wouldn’t be able to have this conversation.”

Excellent work by the Randolph Police Department and a very good use of technology by the people behind the “Text to 911” campaign. We must encourage those in the mental health field as well as law enforcement and first responders to continue utilizing technology as a safety net. More lives will be saved.

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