There is an urgent need to identify the impact of telephone crisis support workers' role on their well-being, the determinants of worker well-being in the telephone crisis support context, and the extent to which well-being impacts their performance and caller outcomes. This will help inform strategies to optimize telephone crisis support workers' well-being and their delivery of support to callers.

Testing a model of functional impairment in telephone crisis support workers AbstractBackground: It is well known that helping professionals experience functional impairment related to elevated symptoms of psychological distress as a result of frequent empathic engagement with distressed others. Whether telephone crisis support workers are impacted in a similar way is not currently reported in the literature. Aims: The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesized model of factors contributing to functional impairment in telephone crisis support workers. Method: A national sample of 210 telephone crisis support workers completed an online survey including measures of emotion regulation, symptoms of general psychological distress and suicidal ideation, intentions to seek help for symptoms, and functional impairment. Structural equation modeling was used to test the fit of the data to the hypothesized model. Results: Goodness-of-fit indices were adequate and supported the interactive effects of emotion regulation, general psychological distress, suicidal ideation, and intentions to seek help for ideation on functional impairment. Conclusion: These results warrant the deliberate management of telephone crisis support workers' impairment through service selection, training, supervision, and professional development strategies. Future research replicating and extending this model will further inform the modification and/or development of strategies to optimize telephone crisis support workers' well-being and delivery of support to callers.

Background: Although telephone services continue to play an important role in the delivery of front-line crisis support, published evidence of the standardized assessment of such services does not exist to date. Aims: To describe the development of the Telephone Crisis Support Skills Scale (TCSSS), an instrument to assess workers' intentions to use recommended skills with callers, and to evaluate its factor structure and reliability. Method: TCSSS items were mapped to a national telephone crisis support practice model. A national sample of workers (n = 210) completed the TCSSS as part of a larger online survey. Principal axis factoring was used to evaluate the structure of the instrument. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach's α values. Results: A single factor accounted for more than 40% of the variance within TCSSS ratings, indicating unidimensional structure. Cronbach's α coefficients suggested adequate internal consistency. Conclusion: Results indicate that the TCSSS is an internally consistent, unidimensional scale, sufficiently sensitive to detect workers' skill priorities for different caller problem types. Further study is required to confirm the factor structure and reliability of the TCSSS using workers from different organizations. Following further evaluation, the TCSSS may be applied to assessing readiness for and quality of service delivery.