It is crucially important that youth voice is being represented at all levels of system development. As 988 is being launched this July, it has prompted states to take a closer look at improving and growing crisis response services and it is vital that youth voices are at these tables! In my role as the TAY Program Manager at On Our Own of Maryland and the Board President at Youth MOVE National, I’ve gotten used to being invited to participate in expert consultation meetings that SAMHSA holds, but I always go in with the expectation that I will be one of the few people vocal about their lived experience and one of the youngest people there. With that comes the expectation that I will speak for all young adults.

In the past year I’ve been invited to two such meetings, one was the 988 Children’s Crisis Continuum Expert Consultation Workgroup and the second was the 988 Partner Convening.

In the first meeting, I was thrilled to know that I wasn’t attending alone, there would be other youth voice representation there and that helped to set the tone. Having multiple voices represented can quickly shift the tone from feeling tokenistic to youth being consulted in a genuine way. In addition to that I quickly realized that I wasn’t alone in my belief that the youth voice needed to be at the forefront of this conversation and that others also believed that hospitalization wasn’t the best option to serve many who are in crisis.

This was drastically different than meetings I had been in before that were around crisis or supporting individuals struggling with suicidal ideation. I’ve gotten used to being the lone voice in a room telling people that everyone should have a choice in the services they receive and that hospitalization is overwhelmingly harmful. So to see our group decide to move away from the language of “Somewhere to go” to something that didn’t imply the need for hospitalization was incredible!

At the second meeting I was asked to open the convening with some reflections of my own lived experiences with the crisis system. As someone who grew up as a queer youth in a rural area and had very limited access to diverse options for crisis support and has developed a passion for expanding our crisis system, this was a phenomenal experience for me. As I spoke with this group of 100+ individuals about how my first interaction with the crisis system, where I was Emergency Petitioned (EP’d) for talking about passive suicidal ideation and taken to an emergency room, and how the harshness and lack of choice in that experience left me feeling scared and unsure about ever being honest about my needs again, I saw the impact that it had on those listening to me. When I spoke about how 988 has the capacity to create a crisis response system that is more equitable, and can ensure that someone does not need special connections to the behavioral health world in order to receive the help they deserve, with respect for their dignity and choice, I noticed how my words were resonating with those listening to me. This singular opportunity for a young queer person to share their story and their expertise has helped to shift the tone of these meetings entirely.

These are both examples of how the representation of youth voice can truly impact how our crisis systems are developed. My hope is the partners that were represented at those meetings saw that impact as well, and when they returned to their collective organizations and states they started the process of ensuring that youth voice would be represented at their tables as well. I also hope that for anyone reading this, that you see that the experiences you have when you’re young are incredibly meaningful. When I was 15 and sitting in that hospital room, feeling ignored and terrified of what would happen next, I never imagined that I would be able to speak in front of a group of decision makers to try and ensure that the next generation never has to feel how I felt then. If you are that decision maker, now is your chance to bring diverse youth voices to these tables and to ensure that our revamped crisis system is truly what young people need and want.