“We’re raising a whole generation of people who don’t hear their own voices,’’ said Eileen Davis, director of the Samaritans Framingham office. “They can be . . . having conversations with friends or just be in crisis, and it’s all online with all kinds of windows open.’’
The goal of the instant messaging service is for teens to reach teens, whose crises - depression, suicide, bullying, sexuality - are more acknowledged today but who seldom reach out via the telephone hot line, which generates most of its calls from people older than 30.
“You have to work harder to be empathetic and not be a faceless person who doesn’t really care,’’ said Ashley Campisano, a 16-year-old junior at Medfield High School who volunteers with the new service. “You don’t get to hear the silences and hear the voice and hear the mood.’’
Still, she said, it feels more natural for her to communicate online because that’s how she routinely talks to friends. Campisano started out answering the phones her freshman year every Tuesday night for three hours. This month, she became one of nine teen volunteers who, having undergone training to run the chat line, respond to instant messages. The program cost $100,000 to develop.
Helping people in crisis, she said, “has been a huge experience in changing perspectives in how people deal with mental illness.’’ She grew up watching the effect suicide had on her family. Her grandfather took his life when her mother was in college.
Mostly, the teens sit at the computer screen, waiting for the familiar jingle of an instant message alert. Since the service started, just over a dozen people have typed in seeking help.
Administrators said they aren’t worried about the lack of calls thus far. It’s similar to when the Framingham office opened in the mid-1980s, Davis said.
