Jon Bon Jovi is receiving praise for appearing to talk someone off the ledge of a bridge in Nashville on Tuesday. Mental health experts say that praise is well deserved.
A video shared by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department shows the 62-year-old rock star approaching a woman in distress while standing on the outside of the guardrail of the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge where he was filming a music video. He went over to the woman with a member of his team and engaged in conversation. Less than a minute later, he helped to bring her back to safety on the other side of the railing.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake expressed his gratitude, writing in the post, “It takes all of us to help keep each other safe.” Mental health experts are endorsing that sentiment.
Lesson learned
“It is everybody’s job to save a life,” Julie Goldstein Grumet, director of Zero Suicide Institution, tells Yahoo Life of Bon Jovi’s actions. She says the bigger lesson is that “you don’t have to be a rock star and you don’t have to be an expert in suicide prevention or mental health” to help. “Anybody, anywhere, anytime can be empathic, can say to somebody, ‘Your life matters. I’m listening. I’m here.’”
The message is particularly poignant during September, which is Suicide Prevention Month, and amid a mental health crisis that people everywhere are struggling to navigate.
“This is an opportunity to cover the public health issue of mental health struggles and suicide, which is a leading cause of death, but a potentially preventable and addressable type of struggle,” Dr. Christine Yu Moutier, chief medical officer at American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), tells Yahoo Life. She says supportive conversations and check-ins should be happening on a more regular basis at home, at school and in the workplace when a person might be struggling and having thoughts of taking their life, but before they take action to do so.
“We are in a position to notice if somebody’s struggling in any way,” says Moutier. “And we have guides for people about how to pick up on those warning signs and how to approach them.”
Most important, this particular story is one of hope, says Grumet, as Bon Jovi helped to get the woman to safety. “It’s a really good message that we can intervene along that continuum of somebody’s thoughts to their actual attempt, right up until the last minute,” she says. “The big picture is that all human beings struggle. And so covering a story where an individual is clearly struggling and where someone else takes action to help, that’s a very positive message.”
And while the details of what exactly the singer said during his intervention are unknown, Grumet says, “It looked to me like really he did everything right.” Now other people can learn from it.
How to help
If you find yourself a bystander to an individual in crisis, the first thing you can do is call for help. Reaching out to 911 is always a good option, although experts recommend dialing 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
“In many communities, they would send a mobile crisis team with clinicians who are skilled and would see this as something they’re willing to do and they’ve had training to engage people,” Dr. Ken Duckworth, chief medical officer at National Alliance on Mental Illness, tells Yahoo Life.
A trained professional from the lifeline will remain on the phone to provide additional support and help figure out next steps, including how to approach the person in distress or what to say. But you don’t have to be a professional to intervene more directly.
“Everyone can and should play a role in preventing suicide,” says Moutier, explaining that interpersonal connectedness is known to reduce suicide risk. “Speaking and words can absolutely make a difference.” It’s crucial to remain calm and compassionate throughout the process, as Bon Jovi appeared to be.
The AFSP has “Real Convos” guides that provide tips and specific talking points for somebody in this situation. Demonstrating that you’re listening, affirming their feelings and following their lead are important.
“People have that skill, they just don’t know it and they haven’t always put it to the test in something as drastic as this,” says Grumet. “But just connecting and saying to somebody, ‘I’m here, I’m with you, you’re not alone, your life matters,’ those are very salient things that a person in that level of crisis just needs to hear.”
Duckworth, however, says it’s also important to consider your own mental capacity. “I just want to give permission for the average person not to feel that they have to run towards this,” he says, noting that it could be more triggering or traumatizing for a specific individual and that a life can be saved by calling emergency services and staying nearby for additional support.
It’s also possible to experience secondary trauma after the event. “It can certainly be an intense experience,” says Moutier. “It’s a moment to take care of your mental health in whatever way that person knows how to do.”
Duckworth recommends contacting the AFSP, the NAMI or a personal physician for additional support.
If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
