988-Russian-Roulette

I scrolled through a Reddit post asking about people’s experiences with the suicide hotline. Callers have reported that their respondent was rude, stayed silent, provided useless and cliche responses, or hung up without hearing the reasons why the person called. Some respondents have called the police or ambulance to their caller's location, which could lead to psychiatric ward hospitalization. The chance of getting a bad operator is unknown, hence the name "Russian Roulette." I wanted to acknowledge the failures of the Suicide Hotline system by creating this piece. The current number for the suicide hotline is 988. The hotline brands itself with green and blue, hence the green paint and blue background. I took real dialogue from operators from anecdotes I found and wrote them over the 9. The middle digit, the 8, represents the consequences of sending authority to a person in a mental health crisis. People are shackled in misery and are being 5150’d. The last digit, decorated in hearts and bandages, represents what can be done to better the system.