COLUMBIA — Congressman Jermaine Johnson has been angry for years.
He said the trauma of growing up in poverty, losing an older brother to gun violence and being held at gunpoint at age 13 weighed heavily on him as an adult.
“My whole life I was just in fight, fight, fight, survival mode and I didn’t understand (why),” the 39-year-old Hopkins Democrat recently told the SC Daily Gazette.
It wasn’t until a few years later that Johnson began seeing a therapist and began to overcome the anger and anxiety left over from her childhood.
Mr Johnson hopes a new documentary about his life, ‘I Got Myself a Yard’, will start a conversation to overcome the stigma around mental illness. he said. Johnson faces no opposition as he seeks a third term representing southern Richland County in November.
Tickets went on sale ahead of World Mental Health Day on Thursday.
About one-third of adults surveyed in South Carolina in 2023 reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorders, according to KFF, a nonprofit organization that researches health issues.
Approximately 15 people per 100,000 people died by suicide in the state in 2021, according to the most recent federal data available.
The number of calls, texts and chats to South Carolina’s hotline has increased since the national 988 Crisis Lifeline launched in 2022, according to the state Department of Mental Health. Jessica Burns, a program manager in the agency’s Office of Suicide Prevention, said officials are responding to more messages and chats at the state’s call center as demand increases, while also trying to educate people about the warning signs of suicide.
talk about mental health
At the root of Johnson’s struggles with mental health were childhood trauma.
One of his earliest memories was when he was about 5 years old, his older brother ran away from their home in Los Angeles to Minnesota after a fight with their father. A few months later, Johnson said, her brother was shot and killed by a friend who had fled with him.
When Johnson was 13 years old, a police officer pulled a gun on Johnson as he played with a toy gun outside a friend’s house. Shortly after, his parents lost their home and were sleeping in a motel.
As a teenager, Johnson was kicked out of school for fighting. He said he felt angry and had a hard time coping.
“When you feel like there’s no way out, no one to care for you, no place to go, these thoughts run through your head and make you question things like, “What is the meaning of life?” “What’s the purpose?” Johnson said.
Johnson poured his emotions into basketball and eventually earned a scholarship to play at the College of Charleston.
He said the sport, which he played professionally for the Reno, Nevada and Bighorns from 2009 to 2015 and then for teams in Canda, Portugal, Brazil and Mexico, gave him an outlet during his lowest moments and helped him find his own. He said he believes it saved his life. .
But that couldn’t take away the trauma he faced. That anger persisted even as Johnson became an adult. The same was true especially for concerns about money. Johnson said he suffered anxiety attacks when his bank account balance dropped too low.
So Johnson went to therapy. His therapist helped him understand that what happened in his childhood was out of his control, that his parents were people dealing with their own issues, and that what happened was not his fault. He said he helped make it happen.
“That’s what led me into the mental health field and encouraged others to go to counseling,” Johnson said.
overcome prejudice
Johnson, who runs a consulting firm, recommends nearly everyone he knows seek counseling.
The married father of three advises his friends who are getting married to seek premarital counseling.
People who are going through difficult times should seek individual counseling. He has even encouraged his statehouse colleagues to try therapy for work stress and reluctance to confide in others, he said.
He said talking about therapy and encouraging more people to seek it can help reduce the stigma around mental health, especially in communities like the one where he grew up.
“Historically, in the Black community, we just tell our people and our young people to pray for it to go away,” Johnson said. “I say it’s okay to have Jesus and a therapist to help us deal with some of the trauma that we come up with.”
Decades of national suicide prevention policies have not reduced the number of deaths.
Burns said the stigma around mental illness and suicide is one of the biggest challenges the state Office of Suicide Prevention faces in reaching out to people for help.
State officials are offering training to help people identify signs that someone may be considering suicide and how to seek help. These trainings, both virtual and in-person, are open to anyone who wants to learn, but some people don’t understand why they are needed, she said.
“They think, ‘No, I’m not a mental health provider, so that doesn’t apply to me,'” Burns says.
The more people know about identifying red flags, she said, the more likely their friends, family and neighbors will get the help they need. If more people talk openly about mental illness, she says, more people are likely to seek help.
That’s Johnson’s goal in his new documentary. He said he wants to show young people that even when faced with hardships, they can overcome them.
“It’s to show that your past doesn’t determine your future, that you can recover from these traumas. You can recover from situations like this, and with the right resources. We can be successful,” Johnson said.
Office of Suicide Prevention
Over the next year, the state Office of Suicide Prevention will begin increasing the number of chats and text messages answered at the state’s two 988 call centers in Charleston and Greenville.
Burns said answering calls is a top priority for the two call centers.
Since the long suicide prevention hotline was replaced with abbreviated numbers in 2022, calls have jumped about 38%, from an average of 7,300 calls per quarter to more than 10,000 calls, according to the Department of Mental Health.
The number of text messages and chats has similarly skyrocketed, but they make up a relatively small percentage of the people contacted. In the second quarter of 2024, the center received about 3,000 text messages and 2,000 chats, compared to more than 10,000 phone calls, according to department data.
Call center employees cannot answer both phone calls and text messages at the same time. If you answer one, you run the risk of being distracted and unable to respond to the other.
Written communication also requires more specialized training because the operator cannot hear the other person’s tone or hear background noise that could provide more information about the situation. And response times on both sides mean written responses typically take longer, Burns said.
The number of calls to the state’s 988 hotline spiked soon after the number launched and steadily increased from then on. (Provided by SC Mental Health Deep Roots Research Department)
Text messages and chats will only get responses from the national backup center. As of May, the state’s call center was answering 77% of calls to the state from South Carolina area codes, according to KFF.
In most cases, the help is the same. Burns said local responders are typically familiar with specific resources within the state. Plus, she said, talking to locals creates a friendlier feeling.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, you know what I’m talking about,'” Burns said. “In a way, you’re here too.”
Call centers will likely train some of their current employees to respond to text messages and chats, and hire others to keep up with demand.
For now, call centers have enough money to do that.
Last year, Congress began earmarking $4 million a year for call centers. This recurring allocation continued indefinitely, with a one-time payment of $1.3 million in 2022.
The state also received more than $8 million in federal funding to launch the 988 hotline. About $3 million of that money was paid in the just-ended federal fiscal year, according to a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The state Department of Mental Health expects to continue receiving federal funding through 2026, but future funding amounts are unclear. Burns said whether the agency requests additional funding from Congress will depend on a review of call volumes after the federal aid dries up.
“Right now, I think we’re in a position to be able to meet that demand because we’re hiring people with these funds,” Burns said. “I think we need to keep that in mind as demand grows.”
