809: The Call
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What was the first hotline in the United States?
The first suicide hotline in the United States was created in the early 60s by a guy in San Francisco who was a priest and also a journalist. And it was just him answering the phone at first. Ads on matchbooks and sides of buses said, thinking of ending it all? Call Bruce. Which, by the way, was not his real name. His real name was Bernard Mays. But of course, the power of anonymity is so important to any hotline. People would call, and sometimes he could help them precisely because he had no connection to their life at all. Like, they could say anything to him. In those pre-internet days, that was completely new, to harness that kind of anonymity, the intimacy of it, this way, over the phone.
These days, of course, there are all kinds of hotlines for people in all sorts of situations. Prayer hotlines, psychic hotlines, also hotlines for homework help, for new moms. There's a hotline for owners of three-legged dogs, and another one specifically for anybody who swallows one. You know those little round button batteries? That hotline also handles any kid who pushes it up their nose. Today we're going to devote our entire show to one phone call that happened on one hotline. A very unusual hotline. And then we have everything that followed from that one call. It takes you inside this world that I think either you're already in this world or it's totally invisible to you. Like it's all around you. You don't even register that this world is there.
What is the Never Use Alone hotline?
Mary Harris tells what happened. She's the host of Slate's daily news podcast, What Next? We first broadcast today's show last year. One quick note, some parts of this phone call might not be great for young children to hear. I suppose I'm going to give you this warning before mentioning that part about pushing batteries up your nose. But anyway, here's Mary with Act One, The Call.
The call in this story took place a few years ago.
Thank you for calling.
It's a call to a hotline of sorts, though one I'd never heard about before and was surprised to learn existed. This is the music you hear when you're waiting for an operator.
I tried to break free, you tried to keep me bound. I tried to live right, you tried to keep me down.
How does a nurse support callers on a drug hotline?
But now I'm going... Never use a loan, it's Kathy. Hi, my name's Kimber. How are you? Good, how are you? I'm good. Let me catch your name one more time. Kimber.
The woman taking this call, her name's Jessie. She's a nurse. And she's taken thousands of these.
Let me get my book. Kimber, I've never talked to you before. I'm glad you called. Have you called us before? No, this is my first time. I just went out of rehab yesterday and I don't want to use that myself. Okay. All right. So what are you going to use, Kimber, and how are you going to use it? I'm injecting heroin. Okay. Probably fentanyl.
Probably fentanyl. Okay. The hotline is called Never Use Alone. And the idea is, if you're going to inject heroin or do a speedball, something like that, and there's no one around, you can dial them up. Someone will stay on the line, make sure you're okay. If it seems like you've overdosed, they'll call the paramedics.
All right, let me get some information, okay, baby? Give me your callback number in case we get disconnected.
Jessie gets the caller's phone number and address, just in case she has to call the ambulance. The caller, Kimber, is in Massachusetts. Jessie is down in Georgia.
You got your door unlocked? Let me check. Hold on. Yeah, it's unlocked now. Okay, so make sure I'm on speakerphone. Yep. All right. Are you by yourself in your home, in your apartment? Yeah. Okay. Do you have Narcan? I do. Set it out for me. Okay.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What was the first hotline in the United States?
0:25–1:54
2
What is the Never Use Alone hotline?
1:54–2:40
3
How does a nurse support callers on a drug hotline?
2:40–5:48
4
What happens during an overdose call?
5:48–8:32
5
What did Jessie experience during the call with Kimber?
8:32–10:49
6
How do paramedics respond to overdose calls?
10:49–11:41
7
What is the impact of fentanyl on overdose rates?
11:41–14:49
8
How can drug users stay safe while using?
14:49–1:01:44