Connection Calms Unfolding Crisis

The emergency line rang at 8:35 a.m.: “Hello, I’m going to kill myself.” The voice on the line that May morning was empty of emotion but full of intention.

Fortunately, the caller connected with Stephanie Brazell, a compassionate Emergency Dispatcher of more than 15 years. Since 2019, Brazell has been a Supervisory Dispatcher for the Glen Canyon Regional Communications Center bordering Utah and Arizona (USA). The secondary PSAP is the National Park Service - a federal agency that oversees millions of acres of national parks including Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches, Petrified Forest National Park, Navajo National Monument, and others.

The national parks function as a separate entity, with their own dispatch services, park rangers, public works, etc. Park officials know the beautiful landscapes like their own backyard so they can respond to visitors in distress on their backcountry adventures: lost hikers, victims of heat exposure, drownings, boat accidents, limb amputations, and more.

That morning, Brazell was focused on the caller committed to ending his life, though gratefully she didn’t know he had crossed a barrier and was sitting with his legs hanging over a ledge with a 1,000-foot drop.

Brazell adapted Medical Priority Dispatch System^™ (MPDS^®) Protocol 25: Psychiatric/Mental Health Conditions/Suicide Attempt/Abnormal Behavior for a first-party caller. After exhausting that resource, she referred to an internal document, but the man was already providing details without her asking. “I knew he was planning to jump,” Brazell said. “He was very angry at first, so I asked him, ‘How did we get here today?’”

A tangled history of conflicts unfurled. Though he was proud of his college work, other infractions caused his past and present to feel insurmountable. Brazell dispatched rangers, but none were in service yet that morning. While arranging help, she kept the man talking, valuing him as a human being in a world of hurt.

“He went through emotional swings,” Brazell said. “After his initial anger, he was calm while I asked him about his schooling, his family, and his interests. Finally, we bonded over the video game Fortnite,”—which Brazell knew because of her eight-year-old son’s descriptions.

A couple of times during the call, the man threatened to jump. “I just pleaded, ‘Please don’t’,” Brazell said. Instinctively, she prepared to disconnect if she heard him leap, desiring to protect herself from the echoing end.

The caller grew impatient and irate with each city police unit arriving on scene, so Brazell shifted his attention to her voice. “Don’t worry about them; talk to me,” she said.

As park rangers arrived at a distance, the man began to fear repercussions for parking outside the toll area. “I told him he wouldn’t be arrested, and he exhaled,” Brazell said. “That was the turning point where I realized he cares, he’s asking for help, and he’s worried about repercussions, which means he’s decided he has a future.”

Brazell kept up the caring chatter until the caller said he was tired of talking. Brazell offered to just sit with him, which he said sounded nice.

Forty minutes into the emotional call, a crisis counselor arrived, presenting a familiar face to the man. He directed the caller to climb back over the barrier so they could have a conversation together, which he did willingly.

After she disconnected the call, Brazell continued her shift, debriefing to her Critical Incident Stress Management team and to park leadership who commended her efforts. Weeks later, she proudly received a Lifesaving Award from her superintendent, though she recognized many people collaborated that day to save a life in crisis.

“I tuned out everything else, so my co-worker took it all—a woman falling off a horse, a person having a heart attack, among other things,” she said.

The words that stay with Brazell are not the caller’s voice, but her superintendent, saying, “Someone’s mom is really glad that you came to work that day.” Brazell keeps thinking about the entire community impacted by one person’s life; it means so much to her to be a part of it.