Kevin Briggs, a suicide prevention advocate from the Law Enforcement community (and featured speaker in an AMAZING TED talk) joins us at #SPSM, 6/28/15, 9pCT.

Kevin will be discussing his experiences in preventing suicide as an LEO on the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as his own experiences as a father helping his son get mental health care. He will be sharing his ideas for how the system of care for people at risk of suicide can be improved.

Watch Briggs with the #SPSM crew LIVE here:

The Tweets for this chat will be archived on Storify.

You can watch his amazing TED talk here:

As an international Crisis Management, Suicide Prevention, and Leadership Skills presenter, Sergeant Kevin Briggs’ story and lived experiences have been featured at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design 2014 Conference as a TEDTalk, Ciudad de Las Ideas (Mexico), Yahoo News, The New Yorker Magazine, Men’s Health Magazine, NPR’s Bob Edwards Radio Show, People Magazine, USA Today, as well as other magazines, newspapers and radio across the world. He is currently working on his autobiography with a scheduled release in July 2015.

Sergeant Briggs is a retired California Highway Patrol officer who spent many years patrolling the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. While on patrol, he encountered numerous individuals clinging to life by a thread – individuals who had lost hope and could see no way out of their current situation – ready to jump off the bridge to what they assumed was a sudden death and ending of their pain and hopelessness.

Sergeant Briggs, through his compassion, gentle voice, eye contact, and his innate ability of “listening to understand” encouraged more than 200 individuals over his career to either not go over the bridge’s rail or come back to solid ground from where they had been standing precariously out on the chord of the bridge and start a new chapter in their life. These challenging, but rewarding efforts earned him the nickname “Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge.” After a 23 year career with the California Highway Patrol, Briggs retired to dedicate his life to promote mental health awareness across the globe through Pivotal Points, an organization he founded to promote Crisis Management, Suicide Prevention, and Leadership Skills.

Today, Briggs is mapping a movement as he speaks publicly about his suicide prevention and crisis encounters with people on the bridge; his “Listening to Understand” skills followed up with key active listening points for anyone to use; his personal triad for healthy living; his RELEASE model to assist anyone in crisis; and his personal mental health struggles while serving in the Army, as a police officer, as a cancer survivor, as a family member and father, and as a leader and co-worker. Briggs spends his time speaking at mental health/physical health/behavioral health, university, first responder, law enforcement (including FBI), and corporate trainings and conferences, promoting suicide prevention, crisis management, and leadership skills, and he consults and advises major corporations. He also speaks at various mental health/behavioral health consumer and advocacy events.

He is a recipient of several honors for his work:

• 2015 recipient of the Matthew Silverman Memorial Foundation Matt’s Hero Award
• 2013 recipient of the ASIS International Outstanding Officer Award
• 2013 Harvey’s Heroes Award (Steve Harvey Show)
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Public Service Award
• California State Senate Resolution for Public Service
• Bay Area Jefferson Award for Public Service
• Heroes Award, given by the Northern California Association of Public Safety Communications Officials

International

• 2004 International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Outstanding Service Award