Evin Jaff, a senior at Seattle Academy, has a love for Doritos. He even had the Amazon one-click button for the chips. Then his parents presented him with a challenge.
“[They asked] is this really the best thing you can be doing with that? Having a button that orders Doritos?” Jaff recalled.
So, when Jaff got involved with his school’s suicide prevention committee a few months later, he had an idea.
“With the click of a button it will dial a suicide prevention number for you and connect you with a hotline in under ten seconds.”
Jaff said the still-unnamed button can break down the barriers that keep people from reaching out for help.
Though the idea sounds simple – click a button and your phone connects you with a crisis hotline or family member almost instantly -- its purpose could help save lives.
“Even if they have the number saved in their phone, they may not have the initiative to dial the number.”
Jaff’s button is still in the prototype stage, but he is working with Seattle Academy to implement a beta program and hopes to see it expand further, including onto college campuses.
Jaff’s creativity does not stop with a button. He’s also developed a program that uses RF Chip’s that can be placed on a poster that would send contact information for a crisis hotline or other important numbers directly to a phone.
“Often times, rarely does a student take the time to pull out their phone, take down the number and have it saved,” he said.
Jaff said his ideas for both are meant to bring more awareness to the resources available for those who may need them, and to change the conversation about suicide.
“Really, just after going through the experience of dealing with people who I lost, I wanted to make sure this didn’t happen to other people,” he said.
The TeenLink helpline is: 866-833-6546
The National Suicide Prevention Helpline is: 800-273-8255
