Author: kayabothe

Over the past two-plus months at my internship, I have learned so much. I have learned a lot about suicide and addiction in Oregon, as well as the large group of people working in prevention to decrease the numbers and help those struggling with suicide or addiction. I have learned how many people are working alongside and with Lines for Life on this mission. There is a whole network of people who are doing prevention work in Oregon on different levels. By working together, they are making real change. 

I have learned that in the world of work, at least at Lines for Life, community is very important. It is crucial for the prevention team to know each other in order to work together effectively. I have also learned that social justice work is a very fulfilling field of work, and it draws a lot of inspiring people to those jobs. 

I feel that my biggest impact on the work that Lines for Life does is the suicide prevention website that I, along with my supervisor and OHA (Oregon Health Advisory), have been working very hard to create. This has been my biggest impact, but also my biggest challenge. It has been a huge learning experience for me to work with people outside of Lines for Life. I have learned how to communicate via email, phone calls, or meetings where some people are there and some are participating via conference call. Along with my work on the suicide prevention website, I have been a supporting person for the other prevention team members and have been able to support them in any of their projects.

 

I would give the advice to pick an internship that sounds interesting and will offer you a variety of tasks to do. I was choosing between two internships, and I am so glad that I chose this one as I have kept busy, as well as had the opportunity to attend many offsite events. Through this variety that my internship offers, I have had the opportunity for maximum learning and have created a strong connection with my coworkers. It has been crucial for me to have many different projects that I can go back and forth between so that I don’t get tired of one of them. My advice is that if an internship becomes monotonous and the same work over and over, it becomes less interesting. This has been very fulfilling and a great learning experience, much more so than sitting and doing paperwork all day. 

My advice for someone who wants to pursue an internship with Lines for Life is to be proactive, participate in all the available opportunities, and get to know everyone you are working with, because they are really awesome people. There are a lot of different projects going on at all times, so get involved, go to the meetings, and learn as much as possible. It has been a great experience and I would highly recommend this to anyone who is looking to learn more and explore a career in public health and prevention work.

Over the past two years at Brandeis I have learned how to better communicate with people who are different from me and have different life experiences. I feel that the skill of communication is a skill that can never be fully mastered, but through my involvement with Brandeis I have continued my learning and it has pushed me to grow into who I am today. I have recognized the varying communication skills I use to talk to different people. With a peer I use casual language, I put less thought into applying a filter, and I am not afraid to say what I am thinking. In a more professional setting with a professor or colleague, I am aware of what I am saying in a conversation. I contact them through email rather than text and observe their email signature to better understand how they want to be addressed. 

I have learned communication skills through my work at Brandeis as a peer advocate at PARC, Prevention Advocacy Resource Center. I have learned how crucial it is to be aware when talking to someone that they have different experiences than me and I need to be conscious of that. Through my work at PARC I have learned skills to show I am listening without judgment. Through mirroring language and letting someone tell me as much or as little of their story as they want to, I try to make them feel comfortable and heard. I have learned how important it is to acknowledge my own biases and privileges in order to be more accepting and empathetic when talking with someone about a tough topic. 

Through my internship at Lines for Life I have learned that communication is key in more than an advocate role. The topics of suicide and addiction are often tough topics to talk about because of the personal connection and devastating effect they can have on someone. Prevention work requires communication with lots of different people; it requires professional communication through email with the conference presenters and those helping to put on conferences, as well as with those who are collaborating on a project. Communication is required in face to face meetings with people and at events. It also requires communication with the community to teach them about suicide and substance use and abuse. Prevention work cannot make a change from an office; it must be a group effort working with the community.

I have learned that many people get into prevention work because of a personal experience or the experience of a loved one. Because of this, I have learned how crucial it is so be aware of the language I use so as to be respectful of a person’s relationship with the work. The communication skills I learned at Brandeis have informed my thinking by making me aware of what I am saying and being aware of the language I use. It has also helped me to consciously continue to learn more about how to best communicate with someone either through face to face or through written exchanges. 

My name is Kaya Bothe and I am a rising junior studying Health, Science, Society & Policy and International & Global Studies. This summer I am interning with Lines for Life, a nonprofit in Portland, Oregon that focuses on preventing substance abuse and suicide. Lines for Life has many different crisis lines (youth line, military helpline, suicide lifeline, alcohol and drug helpline, and senior loneliness helpline), as well as a prevention team. I am interning with the prevention team, which works to combat many social injustices that the residents of Oregon experience. Suicide and drug addiction affect different groups of people disproportionately, and Lines for Life works to support all groups of people, as well as to work with the broader community to change policies and educate the public and health professionals.

Throughout my internship thus far, I have not stopped learning and I am responsible for many different tasks and projects. In the first two weeks of my internship I was given lots of tasks right from the get-go helping to finalize and plan the Oregon Opioids + Other Drugs, Pain + Addiction Treatment (OPAT) conference. I was invited to attend the conference and listen to the speakers as well as help to put it on during the third week of my internship. The week before the conference I read the book Beautiful Boy by David Sheff, who was the keynote speaker of the conference. I got to meet him as well as help sell his books at the book signing. Along with attending a large amount of presentations over the three-day conference, I also was able to learn about what it takes to put on a conference of this scale and was able to help with registration and other day-of needs.

Now that I am back from the OPAT conference, I am focusing on research to create a website for the state to provide statistics and resources to Oregon residents on suicide. We are going to separate the website into different pages. We will have information for health care professionals and teachers, as well as different high-risk groups such as Native Americans, elders, youth, people of color, veterans, the LGBTQ+ community and more. I have a huge role in this project as I have been asked to research these different groups of people and find Oregon-specific statistics. I will then eventually create a fact sheet composed of all my research. I am also in charge of gathering resources that will be added to the different pages. After I have finished the research, I will compile everything and write it up into something that eventually be put on the website.

Along with research and helping my coworkers with their projects, I have been invited to many different events and outings. For instance, just today, I went to a press conference where Congresswoman Bonamici spoke about the new legislation, The Safe Disposal of Opioids Act, just passed by Washington County, the first county in Oregon to require pharmaceutical companies to provide a safe and accessible way for people to dispose of unused and/or expired prescription opioid pills. This was really interesting to me and I got to see many important people, along with the CEO of Lines for Life, speak in front of people and news crews. This legislation is a huge step for Oregon, as hopefully other counties will follow and the whole state can in the future provide safe drop boxes. I have learned that there are so many different steps that need to be taken to end the opioid epidemic, and this is just the starting point with so much more work to be done.

Throughout all of this, I am learning more than I imagined I ever could at this internship, and my interest in the field is continuously growing as I see the inspiring work Lines for Life is doing to combat suicide and the opioid addiction epidemic.